Volunteering for language in the company

Volunteering for Language (VxL) is a free programme for practising Catalan through conversation, in person or online. The goal is to enable companies to offer their staff the opportunity to improve their level of spoken Catalan, to increase competitiveness, quality of service and their roots with the immediate environment.

VxL is developed in different fields to meet the specific needs of certain groups, such as thebusiness world and healthcare, among others.

VxL in the company is addressed to a company’s staff. It is based on the creation of language pairs formed by a volunteer, who speaks Catalan fluently, and a learner, who has basic Catalan language skills but needs to practise the language to become fluent.

VxL in the company takes place within the work environment.

The CPNL, in collaboration with a person of reference in the company, helps with both the internal dissemination of the programme and language pair management.

The pairs undertake to meet for one hour a week, for a minimum of 10 meetings. They also have access to the activities that the programme organises to practise Catalan in different environments and a discount card for cultural and leisure equipment. At the end of the meetings, they are given a certificate of participation.

VxL is a measure of corporate social responsibility: through VxL, the company encourages employees to dedicate time and talent to a volunteering initiative that helps establish labour cohesion through a culture-related action.

Incorporating Catalan as acorporate value has a positive impact, both externally (it improves the quality of service and the company’s external reputation) and internally (it generates a new bond based on solidarity among employees).