Get Set, Grow! - HW Language Services
Name of Business: HW Language Services
Founder: Hayley Wallbank
Date Established: November 2016
This month we feature Hayley Wallbank, founder of HW Language Services. Hayley is passionate about languages and believes that learning a new language is beneficial for well-being and self-confidence. She recently secured a new contract with the Met Office.
We asked Hayley to give us some background on the business:
I remember my first French lesson at school, aged 11, it felt like a switch had been flicked in my head; I knew straight away that languages would be a passion of mine from that moment on.
Over the years I’ve enjoyed travelling the globe. As my geographical, commercial and cultural horizons broadened, so did my language repertoire; adding business Russian alongside my French, German and beginners’ Spanish and Italian skills.
In 2016, as my business network had grown substantially, so did the realisation that not many UK businesses had in-house foreign language skills for international trade. As a result, they were missing out on significant commercial and communications advantages. HW Language Services was founded, providing commercial, technical and conversational foreign language training to businesses and business support providers, in-house and online.
Talk us through the day to day running of the business and how things are going so far:
No two days are the same!
I might be providing German training one day at the Met Office in Exeter, for individuals who engage with climate scientists in the DACH region and the next day helping an account manager, working for an SME in Honiton, to prepare presentations for a Russian trade exhibition.
Regular client reviews are a really useful indicator of whether client objectives are being fulfilled and they also throw up some fantastic surprises. One client in Crewkerne highlighted the significant improvement in staff morale, well-being and productivity as a result of more than 20 staff learning German over the last 6 months. I couldn’t stop smiling all day. #mindmatters
And finally, what are your plans for the future:
VoIP technology such as Skype has proved popular with our clients and opened up new markets for us further afield. Digital technology, as part of a blended language learning approach, is certainly an area that HW Language Services is exploring for its next phase, incorporating industry-specific modules with conversational language fundamentals.
Such a blended learning approach would undoubtedly also help to engage with generation Z who are now entering the workplace.
For in-house bespoke business language courses in German, French or Russian please get in touch with Hayley at [email protected] or pop on to her website https://hwlanguageservices.co.uk
