CILT Cymru

Growing up in a Welsh-speaking household in Swansea and having a mother who was a teacher of foreign languages, Ceri was made aware at an early age of the importance of all languages, and of the disadvantages of remaining monolingual. Having studied French and German (Joint Hons) at Jesus College, Oxford, Ceri’s first post was as a teacher in a comprehensive school in Oxfordshire. He later became Head of MFL at a Welsh-medium comprehensive school in South Wales.

In 1989 he left teaching to join the Welsh Joint Education Committee as an examinations officer (GCSE & A Level), and developer of teaching resources for MFL. During his time with WJEC he also joined its European Unit, successfully bidding for and managing a number of Socrates transnational projects. In the late 1990s Ceri started to collaborate with CILT, and worked closely with the late Peter Boaks to bring the National Comenius Centre of Wales to WJEC, UWIC and the University of Wales, Bangor. Ceri became an employee of CILT in 1999, and was delighted when CILT Cymru was launched in 2002 as the ‘delivery arm’ of the first Welsh Assembly Government strategy for MFL.

Ceri became Director of CILT Cymru in 2004, and leads a small but dynamic team based in Cardiff Bay. He remains as convinced as ever of the value of learning languages, and of the contribution that they can make to developing skilled, mobile and tolerant individuals and societies. On a personal level, however, he concedes that learning Polish is not as easy as it might have been 30 years ago!

CILT Cymru

Routes into Languages Cymru, Project Manager

Ellie has always had a keen interest in languages, which was probably sparked by her annual holidays around France as a child. Being educated in Wales in a bilingual environment also helped!
 

She is a graduate of French and Italian and used her studies as an excuse to travel abroad even more often. As part of her degree she had the opportunity to spend 6 months in Salerno, Italy followed by 6 months in Nantes, France as an Erasmus student, which was an unforgettable experience.
 

Following her graduation, Ellie worked for 3 years in the Learning Department at St Fagans: National History Museum, Cardiff where she improved her Welsh and regularly practised her French with the visitors.
 

Now in her role as Project Manager Ellie is looking forward to the challenges that this project will bring:
“ I’m really happy about joining the CILT Cymru team to manage this exciting new project in Wales. I think it’s so important that we do everything we can to highlight to young people, not only the skills you acquire when learning a language, but also the hundreds of brilliant opportunities that are suddenly available to you. I hope to share my enthusiasm as best I can!”

Cilt Cymru

Project Co-Ordinator

Bangor University

North Wales Project Support Officer

Bangor University

North Wales Project Support Officer