On 26 September, the European Day of Languages, the German Ambassador welcomed the winners of the prestigious European Award for Languages to the German Embassy. This Award is a Europe-wide initiative supported by the European Commission and, in the UK, by the Department for Education and Skills.

Sir Trevor McDonald and Baroness Catherine Ashton presented the Awards to twelve projects, selected by a panel of judges according to three main criteria: innovation, effectiveness and replicability. The judges' task had not been not an easy one – they commented on the high standard of the entries.

This year, the Steering Group of the Nuffield Languages Programme decided to award a special cash prize of a thousand pounds to the project which they felt made the greatest contribution to translating the recommendations of the Nuffield Inquiry into practice.

The Nuffield Inquiry highlighted the vicious circle whereby businesses, in particular smaller companies, don't export because they don't have language skills … and they don't invest in language skills because they're not exporting. The winners of the Nuffield prize were Norfolk Adult Education Service, who decided to challenge this status quo and make it easier for companies in their area to break the circle. They set up E-urocom, which provides an innovative combination of ICT and language skills to a range of local and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Norfolk. The package includes the design of foreign language websites for individual or clusters of businesses, enabling them to reach and compete in new European markets. Satisfied customers include a small specialist brewery which sells to France, a group of Bed & Breakfast owners advertising in Germany, and a company specialising in automotive design which deals with German manufacturers.

The Norfolk team were presented with their prize by Sir Trevor.

For further information, contact denise.saadvandi.edu@norfolk.gov.uk