MFL Students Take Part in an Online Outreach Session with GCHQ
A group of Carlton le Willows’ French and German students took part in an online outreach session with GCHQ (Government Communications Head Quarters).
The purpose was to see how language skills can help students to be recruited by the Government’s cyber and security agency, whose mission is to keep the UK safe.
The outreach event began with a presentation to the Year 9 linguists on the role of GCHQ and why Language Analysts are crucial to the agency’s work in dealing with counter terrorism, cyber security and serious and organised crime prevention.
The students then took part in language scenario activities, which involved de-cyphering the French/German coded messages sent by criminals in possible national security scenarios.
Head of MFL Natalia Strumnik- Brown, who organised the session, said: “The session ended with a Q&A. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, GCHQ were not able to answer a couple of our students’ questions due to the top secret nature of their work. The students really enjoyed the session which helped them to start thinking about their future careers and how languages could play a vital role.”