There are many ways to snag that perfect job, you can ace the interview, write a rockin’ resume, make connections, and more! However, one asset that can make you very marketable is a little harder to come by...speaking a second language! "70 percent of employers believe Spanish-speaking skills will be highly sought after in the next decade,” industries leaders predict. Here at Madison City Schools, our vision is, “empowering students for global success.” One key way to achieve this goal is promoting the importance of learning of a second language in our student body. Last week we hosted our first Bilingual Panel of Professionals to speak to a Spanish and French class at James Clemens High School, to keep making strides in empowering our students for global success.
Our panel discussed their backgrounds which varied from growing up in different parts of the world to growing up a few miles down the road in Tanner, AL. The joining strand that brought these folks together was their willingness to speak to our students about how they utilize speaking a second language as an asset in their job. Our two representatives with the health care system could not stress enough how being able to speak a second language can automatically buy your resume longer than the first 10-12 second glance over! Being able to communicate with patients in their native language allows the hospital to facilitate an overall more welcoming and helpful environment. Also, we learned from our Pre-K Administrator, Ms. Bush, that even here in Madison City we have over fifty dialects and languages that come through our system. All of our individuals discussed the importance of not being afraid to try learning a second language, even if you are not an, “expert,” keep using the language you are learning as much as possible, you will only improve by practicing!
It is our goal in doing outreach panels like this that our students remember that there is a large world waiting for them when they leave our doors of Madison City Schools and that we have laid a strong foundation.
📷We welcomed the following guests as part of our panel Mr. Peter Alvarez- Redstone Federal Credit Union, Ms. Fannie Proctor- Huntsville Hospital, Ms. Alma Lopez-Athens Limestone Hospital, Ms. Angie Bush-MCS PreK Administrator, Mr. Daniel Kaiser-Intergraph. A huge thank you goes out to these folks that volunteered their time to speak to our students about their experiences in the workplace and the importance of learning a second language in our globalized society.