Community Involvement

Since its formation in 1995, AST Language Services has been headquartered in Radford, Nottingham, an inner-city area which is recognised by the Government as having problems related to social deprivation, unemployment, low educational achievement, etc.

Having invested in modern high-tech premises in the area, the Company's founder, Andrew Schlich, recognised the need for the Company to be involved in helping to promote the regeneration of the surrounding environment.

AST Language Services recently got involved with the Regional Language Network’s Business Language Champions scheme, an initiative which recruits local businesses into local schools to encourage students to continue with their language learning by demonstrating the importance of language skills beyond the classroom environment.

Since 2004 it has no longer been compulsory for young people to study a modern language post key stage 3. This means that more and more young people are dropping languages aged 13-14, never to pick them up again. This is detrimental to local businesses to whom employing people with language abilities would be a real benefit.

The Regional Language Network seeks to redress this balance by raising awareness of the relevance studying modern languages can have in the workplace. It does this through coordinating events between schools and local businesses.

AST went to Ellis Guilford School at the start of March 2009 to deliver a presentation and language workshop designed to raise awareness of the many uses languages can have in the workplace. Ellis Guilford is an inner city school with a particularly low uptake of languages to GCSE level.  The unusual event was covered in the Nottingham Evening Post and the day was such a success that AST has plans to extend its involvement in the scheme next year, with a view to visiting other schools in the Nottingham area.

AST Language Services were instrumental in founding the Nottingham based Independent Business Association (IBA) a non-profit making organisation which exists to support local companies in inner-city Nottingham for the benefit of the wider community.

The IBA provides a range of support services to local companies including:

• Organisation of public meetings, which have been attended on a number of occasions by senior politicians
• Provision of a local business support hotline
• Assistance in locating grants, financial support, loans, etc.
• Frequent networking events

AST sponsors the Nottingham and Notts Refugee Forum.

The Forum is an independent voluntary organisation set up to help and support asylum seekers and refugees living in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

It is not always understood that asylum seekers, who are often fleeing persecution in their own country, do not have an automatic right to receive benefits in this country whilst their applications for asylum are being processed. This means that they often have no money to pay for essentials such as housing and food. The NNRF provides an important half-way-house for them during the processing of their applications by the UK Immigration Office.

AST Language Services is delighted to be able to sponsor the NNRF, in the belief that helping these disadvantaged people is an essential humanitarian gesture. We also believe that longer-term benefits will derive from making these people feel as comfortable as possible in the UK, as they may one day be in a position to influence and improve relations between the UK and their countries of origin.