Strategy and Business Systems

About the European Business Programme

Endorsement by Margaret Hodge, former Minister for Lifelong Learning and Higher Education, GB

Ever since the Tower of Babel, language has divided us. But today in the European Union we are finding new ways in which we can break down barriers and speak a common language. Europe is sharing more than ever before. One of the biggest areas of co-operation has been in business and education and the European Business Programme has been a successful pioneer of both.

We know that businesses across Europe are crying out for talented multilingual employees with economic, cultural and political skills. The European Business Programme has been responding to their call. As an internationally recognised business qualification which has been running for 30 years, it presents students and European business with a win-win situation.

The European Business Programme is a win for the individual because it is an exciting opportunity for students across Europe to develop business, language and cultural skills at a UK, Spanish, French or German university. European business wins by having a greater supply of talented students with the multilingual and business skills they crave.

It is also contributing to a closer European community. I know from first hand experience the vital importance that student mobility programmes such as the European Business Programme and, more widely, Socrates-Erasmus, can have in improving cultural ties, promoting tolerance and international citizenship.

As the European Union expands with ten more member states from Central and Eastern Europe, Cyprus and Malta, I would like to see more students benefiting from the European Business Programme. The more students learn about each other’s countries, the greater the contribution they make to an enlarged Europe.

I congratulate all those students taking part in the programme – past, present and future – and everyone else involved who has helped make the programme such a success.

Margaret Hodge