Schools and colleges

• The Our Languages events calendar details professional development opportunities for teachers of community languages across the education sectors.
• Teachers of community languages to primary-age children will also find useful guidance on the dedicated professional development pages on the Primary Languages website, including links to the free Training Zone and Local Support Groups.
• The National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education offers a termly professional development programme aimed specifically at teachers in the supplementary school sector.
• The Community and Lesser Taught Languages (COLT) project from the Routes into Languages NW Consortium offers a range of training events for teachers of community languages, as well as activities for learners, focusing particularly on Arabic, Italian, Mandarin Chinese and Urdu.
• Colleagues interested in accredited training for the mainstream school sector should visit the Our Languages career development pages. As well as highlighting courses to help prepare colleagues thinking about qualifying to teach in the Developing professional skills in teaching community and world languages leaflet (pdf, 370kb), Teaching Assistant and Higher Level Teaching Assistant careers are also highlighted. Guidance is also given on routes to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), including video testimony from a qualified Arabic teacher skilled in working with both primary and secondary-age children.
• The Qualify to teach community languages page also gives a useful summary of routes to QTS, including a list of institutions offering PGCE opportunities in community languages and how to access the Qualify to teach community languages leaflet from CILT.
• The World Languages strategy from the TDA, announced in January 2009 and currently under development, is likely to influence the availability of qualifications to teach community languages over the next few years. Its impact should be felt across the children’s workforce, including both HLTA qualifications and CPD opportunities as well as initial teacher training.

Workplace

The Workplace Professional development pages indicate a range of opportunities for language professionals to improve their skills and employment prospects, including in the field of interpreting, translating and sign language interpreting.