A new website which hosts a suite of free services has been launched to help the UK workforce overcome language and cultural barriers. www.blis.org.uk comprises a linguists database, a listing of support facilities, a database of language courses and a vacancy exchange. The latter, BLIS Jobs, was launched nationally on the European Day of Languages, 26 September, following a successful pilot in the North East, North West, Yorkshire & The Humber and the South West.
The Sector Skills Development Agency is funding the project to extend on-line business language information services to employers in the UK to March 2004. The project will further improve the quality of the searchable database BLIS Professionals, which has seen an overall increase of registrants of 8.7% in the last twelve months and currently holds over 1,300 entries. Alongside this development, it supports the UK-wide roll out of BLIS Jobs, on which over 700 candidates have registered to date and employers have advertised over 100 vacancies. The service matches jobs with languages and multilingual jobseekers, allowing employers to search for suitable candidates. It is fully expected that, with promotion at both national and regional level, BLIS Jobs will be a valuable resource across the UK.
The site also hosts BLIS Courses, a learndirect portal, allowing visitors to search their extensive database of language courses in the UK. A fourth element, BLIS Facilities, lists companies providing support services such as international bookshops, conference facilities and localisation experts.
National Centre for Languages launches new business services
including BLIS Jobs