The ‘SICL Language Class’ provides weekly lessons with a private tutor for a group of staff keen to develop or improve their language skills focussed on technical business conversation. Started in September 2009 the initial project is a 26 week French course which will be followed by Italian and then possibly other languages. The idea is to supplement existing language skills in English, German, Hungarian and Polish to provide a broad base of language skills for support and project work to customers throughout Europe.
The language class is the idea of SICL’s Financial Director Shirley Firth who explains, “The European business won thus far does not oblige any language skills other than English and has been won on technical and commercial merit. Having said that, we thought it appropriate to broaden our language skills to assist customers and hopefully develop further business across Europe. It also fits well with our Investor in People model, where everyone in the business is encouraged to learn new skills".