Careers Skills Competition Winner 2024
Careers Skills Competition Winner 2024
The Languages Connect Award for Careers with Foreign Languages
Congratulations to Aoife McCann from Sacred Heart School, Drogheda, Co. Louth who has won the Languages Connect Award for Careers with Foreign Languages at this year’s careersportal.ie Career Skills Competition. Aoife is a fifth year student who investigated a career in Interpretation.
The Career Skills Competition aims to promote the importance of career skills and encourage the value of career research. It gives students the chance to reflect on the skills they develop during their work experience and explain how those skills might help them in their future career.
In her investigation Aoife researched how she could study Interpretation at third level and the career options thereafter, highlighting the many benefits languages could have in her career. In her entry Aoife noted that interpretation “is a job that I will be seriously considering in the future. It aligns with both my skills in languages and the working environment I would prefer. I enjoy learning new things so obtaining a four-year college degree as part of this career would be interesting to me.”
Aoife also commented on the opportunity foreign language learning provides when it comes to personal development. “ I would be working with people from diverse cultures, and I want to be respectful and open to new ideas and people. Being open would allow me to adapt and communicate with everyone I would work with. This would help me both progress in my career as I would form better relationships with people and in my personal life as I will be able to form closer relationships with other and learn from them.
This is the second year of the Languages Connect Award for Careers with Foreign Languages in the Career Skills competition, underlining the growing importance of languages as a skill for careers today.
Karen Ruddock, Director of Post-Primary Languages Ireland, who presented Aoife with the award commented, “The Career Skills competition highlights the multifaceted careers available to today’s young people, and we are delighted to be involved again this year. Languages are the cornerstone of global enterprise, serving as the bridge between cultures and markets. As we navigate an increasingly interconnected world, it is paramount that our students are equipped with the skills necessary to be able to compete and thrive in diverse professional landscapes. Foreign language learning also supports the development of transversal skills, skills which employers are looking for such as the ability to communicate well and across cultures, superior divergent thinking skills and empathy, shaping a brighter future for all”.
Aoife was presented her award at a ceremony held at the Clock Tower in the Department of Education.
