Our English for Tourism programme has benefited over 800 tourist agents contributing to the development of Medellin
In its third year, the English for Tourism project has impacted the lives of people within the tourism sector such as staff in hotels, restaurants, taxi drivers, tour guides, flower farmers and artisans, allowing them to aspire to better job opportunities and directly contributing to the bilingual strategy of the city.
This project prepares us to receive all the tourists that come to our city while we benefit the people that work in this industry. Juliana Cardona Project Manager at the Subsecretaria de Turismo Medellin
Through an 80 hour programme of face-to-face classes and field trip activities students have acquired new language skills and learnt more about landmarks of the city for their daily job improving their interactions with visitors and personal development. Additionally, 16 "Silleteros", or traditional flower farmers who represent the city with their flowers participated in an immersion learning process. To measure results, the British Council has administered APTIS test to a high sample of participants.
The British Council has promoted the importance of learning English in the tourism industry, and has managed to strengthen relations with governmental agencies so as to change the perception of English and position this language as a key factor for competitiveness. This results in opportunities for the publishing sector, the UK English language offer and UK tourism agents.