Please can you give us some brief background information on your company, and on the European Airbus project?
Airbus is one of the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers and consistently captures around half of the market for aircraft of over 100 seats.

After a French/British/German agreement in 1969 to develop a new aircraft, the A300, Airbus Industrie was formed in 1970 as a grouping of economic interest (GIE) by Sud Aviation of France and Deutsche Airbus of Germany, with Britain’s Hawker Siddleley Aviation working with private finance as a sub-contractor to produce the wings. Shortly afterwards Spain’s CASA joined the consortium. Having already made every set of wings for every Airbus, Britain joined the consortium as a full partner in 1979.

Hawker Siddeley Aviation became British Aerospace, whilst Sud Aviation became Aerospatiale, Deutsche Airbus became Daimler Chrysler Aerospace and together with the Spanish partner CASA these full partners in the original consortium formed Airbus into a single integrated company in 2001.

Today the original industrial sites in each country operate as national companies known as Airbus France, Airbus Deutschland, Airbus UK and Airbus España, each continuing to hold special responsibilities for producing sections of the aircraft, which are transported to Toulouse or Hamburg for final assembly.

The parent company, Airbus SAS is headquartered in Toulouse and has two shareholders - the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), a merger of the French, German and Spanish interests, holds 80 per cent of the shares and BAE Systems, the successor to British Aerospace, holds 20 per cent.

Many of your workers are located in France for training/work purposes.
Do they follow any type of language tuition? If not, do you encourage your workforce to learn some French?
At any one time there are several hundred employees from the UK working at other Airbus sites throughout mainland Europe. There are 16 Airbus design and manufacturing sites in the UK, France, Germany and Spain, as well as subsidiaries in the U.S.A., China, Japan and a joint-venture in Russia. Airbus also operates spare parts and training centres in Europe, the U.S.A. and Asia and 130 field service offices around the world. Airbus also relies on industrial co-operation and partnerships with major companies all over the world, and a network of some 1,500 suppliers in 30 countries.

Some employees are on short or long term placements. The working language of Airbus is, and has always been English, however, all employees have the opportunity to develop and improve their language skills. Employees are encouraged to learn new skills and languages. These opportunities are either free or fully or partly reimbursable upon success. The UK company has Learning Resource Centres on its sites. The Broughton Centre is managed by Deeside College staff who provide a wide range of courses for employees. Employees can also receive up to £100 to attend a course during their own time, especially encouraged if a course has an impact on developing their skills. Languages fit into this category.

What in your opinion are the benefits of learning French for those who go to Toulouse on training/to work?
In my opinion learning any language and being able to speak in another tongue is a huge bonus. Those employees who go to work abroad are encouraged to get involved in the local culture and wherever possible to speak the language. As we are a multinational, multi-cultural company we do have staff working in the UK who can speak confidently in 2, 3 or more languages. The official working language of Airbus is however English, but naturally many employees, particularly on the ‘shop floor’, speak in their native tongue on a day to day basis.

Would an ability to speak some French prove an asset when it came to obtaining a job in the company?
The ability to speak French, German and/or Spanish in particular would be a valuable asset. As our supply chain is vast the company deals with people who speak a wide range of languages. Even though our main function is manufacturing/engineering when recruiting ‘young people’ the main requirement at 16 onwards is GCSE’s, A levels (or equivalent) and degrees ask for Maths, Science, Technology, Physics, Engineering etc. and the acquisition of a language qualification is highly recommended.

Do other staff in North Wales need to speak other languages? If so, in which capacity?
Similar to the above answers - the ability to speak another language is highly recommended. As we are based in North Wales, especially when dealing with schools/colleges and agencies such as Careers Wales the ability to speak Welsh is extremely useful.