CalMac staff come on board to learn Gaelic

Published on Wednesday 1 September 2010 15:05

FERRY staff have not missed the boat if they want to learn Gaelic. All 1,200 employees of state-owned Caledonian MacBrayne are being offered help to learn useful phrases in the language.

The staff on all the company's vessels and at ports, harbours and offices are being encouraged to learn Gaelic via an online 'toolkit', developed by the Skye-based learning company Cnan specifically for CalMac and funded to the tune of 30,000 by development agency Brd na Gidhlig.

The offer will also be extended to staff with sister firm NorthLink Ferries, which serves Orkney and Shetland, where Gaelic is rarely spoken.

In all, the number of workers eligible to take up the opportunity is 1,600, nearly 3 per cent of the 58,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland.

It was launched yesterday by Michael Russell, the education secretary, during a visit to Cnan's premises at Sabhal Mr Ostaig, the Gaelic college in Skye.

He said: "Increasing the number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland is a core aim of the many Gaelic-related initiatives currently under way, so CalMac's initiative in finding a way to make language training accessible to as many staff as possible is to be commended.

"For many people, other than passing road signs, seeing the ferries' names and the onboard signage in Gaelic may be their first known exposure to the language, so it is great to see CalMac going a step further and teaching staff useful Gaelic words and phrases."

The toolkit includes introductory lessons, glossaries of useful phrases, an interactive map showing CalMac's ferry routes and the meaning of the port names, puzzles, animations and over 1,000 audio phrases.CalMac's managing director Phil Preston said about 10 per cent of staff already speak Gaelic but the company wanted to increase that by offering tuition to as many staff as possible.

"We have tailored the content of the toolkit so it is relevant to ferries and are sure that once everyone gets a basic understanding and grasp of simple phrases they will want to go on and learn more," he said.

"This has been a huge undertaking so we are grateful to Cnan for their expertise and guidance and to Brd na Gidhlig for the funding which has made this possible."

Donella Beaton, chief executive of Cnan, said the geographical spread of staff and complicated working hours meant it was not possible to send all staff on courses to learn some Gaelic to use in their everyday work and this was overcome by using online technology.

"We believe it is a model which could be adopted by other companies and organisations who would like more of their staff to be able to speak some Gaelic and understand why it is important", she said.

Arthur Cormack from Brd na Gidhlig said he hopes that projects like this could encourage people to go a step further and learn Gaelic to fluency.

He said: "This type of online learning, relevant to the organisation, is an example that other public bodies, councils and private companies could follow, and is essential if services are to be offered in Gaelic."