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The Chain2 project aims to bring together English and French companies engaged in either R&D activity or the export of innovative products. The project runs from Nov 2011 to Dec 2014 and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund's Interreg Channel (Manche) Programme. The project includes acitivty such as the formation of English-French business partnerships, business conventions on either side of the Channel, English & French language & culture training, and soft landings. The project targets companies from several counties, with an initial focus on Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk & Essex in the East of England. Companies based in the South East (Kent, Sussex & Hants) and the South West (Devon, Dorset & Somerset) are also welcome to participate.
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The Language & Culture for Employment Project (LACE) is a project that runs from November 2009 until Dec 2012. It is focussed on international trade, apprenticeships & offender management, and offers support to organisations delivering language and culture training financed under the European Social Fund (ESF) across the East of England. It achieves this by promoting the availability of ESF-funded activity to employers, developing and collating resources to support language training. It also achieves this by using our extensive network of business contacts with business support organisations, in particular UK Trade & Investment.
www.rln-east.com/lace
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The Export Communications Review is an ongoing programme managed by UK Trade & Investment. It aims to support businesses in developing their international communications strategy. The first part is delivered by the British Chambers of Commerce and is an initial audit and development of a communications report. This is followed by practical aftercare provided by RLN East, working through the actions identified in the report.
www.rln-east.com/ecr
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Recent Projects
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The Lilama project focuses on identifying best practice in language policy & training for the labour market. Although its focus is world-wide, emphasis is given to the strong track record of employer support for language skills in the East of England, which was the first region to be visited by EU partners, who have observed a range of projects. In addition to the East of England, RLN East has been working with partners in the United States & China to identify and visit policymakers & practitioners. Lessons from these practices are being transferred to the East of England to inform current projects, in particular those funded under ESF.
www.lilama.org
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The Misco project lasts from Sep 2009 to June 2010 and aims to support the mutual learning of French and English language & business culture. It is a joint project between partners in the East of England and Brittany, France. It is funded by the European Union's ERDF Interreg Manche programme, and match funded by project partners. The project focusses in particular on companies in those priority sectors in both regions, which include life sciences, telecommunications, agrifood, creative & media and hi-tech manufacturing. Business support is provided by RLN East and ADIT, the Industrial Development Agency of Trégor, with training provided by the Université Catholique de l'Ouest and Dialogue Language Services.
http://www.misco-project.eu
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The BioCulture project lasts from November 2007 to October 2009. The project aims to raise the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the life science sector (biotech and medtech) through the creation of language training resources. It is funded by the European Commission's Leonardo Transfer of Innovation programme, and match funded by EEDA. The project also develops links between the life science clusters in England, Denmark, Sweden, Finland & Italy. A total of 140 companies have participated in the project.
www.rln-east.com/bioculture
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The project aims to improve the ability of the East of England prisons to develop a workforce that is able to operate in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural environment, and that can communicate effectively with overseas national prisoners. Funded by the East of England Development Agency and supported by the regional Learning & Skills Council and HMPS, the project establishes the key points of communication in the prisoner journey and the inherent barriers to communication between passengers and staff, and to recommend how communications skills can be developed to further support the diversity training which staff receive
www.rln-east.com/prisons
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The project aims to improve the ability of the East of England airports to improve the customer service experience through the use of language skills and cultural information as staff recognise that the airport is the first and last impression for many foreign visitors to the UK. Funded by the East of England Development Agency, BAA Stansted and Essex Learning & Skills Council, the project identifies both current staff language ability and the main barriers to communication between passengers and staff. Key partners in the project are BAA Stansted, Stansted Academy and East of England Tourism.
www.rln-east.com/airports
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The Harvest project lasted from October 2006 to September 2008. The project aimed to raise the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the food & drink sector and agrotourism industries through the creation of language training resources. It was funded by the European Commission's Leonardo Language Competence programme, and match funded by EEDA and partners from Poland, Hungary & Bulgaria. A total of 300 companies participated in the project.
www.rln-east.com/harvest
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The Language and Culture for International Trade (LCIT) project ran from September 2006 to March 2008. It provided SMEs in the East of England with funded language training. This training was flexible to reflect company needs and delivered through a wide range of training institutions across the East of England. A total of 220 staff from 50 companies took part in the project.
www.rln-east.com/lcit
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The International Communications project ran from April 2006 to December 2007, and provided practical support to 140 businesses through active referrals to training programmes, culture workshops and translation agencies. The project was funded by the East of England Development Agency, and worked closely with international trade advisors from UK Trade & Investment.
www.rln-east.com/roadmap
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The Business Culture Resource (BCR) project ran from April 2005 to October 2007 and aimed to developed a series of field culture reports based on discussions with companies and business support organisations both in the East of England and in the target market. A total of 14 field reports were developed, and these were supplemented by a further 50 brief culture guides. The project was funded by UK Trade & Investment, with sponsorship and input from multinational corporations overseas.
www.rln-east.com/culture
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The Fenland Pilot project ran from September 2007 to March 2008 and provided support to 14 companies in the North Cambridgeshire area which employed a multicultural workforce, with particular emphasis on those employing staff from the recent EU accession countries. This project linked to the International Communications Roadmap project in that it referred companies to specific support programmes and organisations.
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The Decipher project is designed to help companies gain and improve understanding of the business culture of the target export markets. Of particular interest to the project are companies which operate in the agrifood, life science and manufacturing sectors, although companies from other sectors are welcome to join in the project. A knowledge of a customer's language, even at a basic level, can show commitment to a business relationship and enable companies to reach a wider customer base. Experience has also shown that a knowledge of a customer's culture helps both with understanding their behaviour and adapting marketing material. The project is funded by the European Union's Lifelong Learning Transfer of Innovation programme.
www.decipher-project.eu
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Business Language Champions Plus (BLC+) runs from April 2007 to March 2011+, It is a project which aims to demonstrate to students in secondary and further education the value of language skills in the world of work. It achieves this by bringing together employers and schools to work on project activity and offer mutual support. The project is funded by Norfolk County Council and the Department for Education. The project aims to form 22 employer-school partnerships, the majority of which are based in Norfolk.
www.rln-east.com/blc
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