4-Term Pathway - Foundation Certificate in Social Sciences - Continue to Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - Modern Languages and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Year Abroad)

For students who've finished high school but don’t meet the entry requirements for university, a Foundation Certificate can help them gain entry to an undergraduate degree. After completing this pathway option students qualify for progression to the 1st year of an undergraduate degree at the University of Essex.

A student’s course length is determined mainly by their English language level (UKVI IELTS score). Students on all course lengths take a set of common or similar modules to gain a solid base of skills for university. Students taking a course longer than 2 terms, will take additional modules designed to improve one or more of their English language level, academic skills, and basic knowledge of particular subjects.

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - Modern Languages and Teaching English as a Foreign Language

This course is ideal for students who want to teach English to non-native speakers, but the knowledge and skills they develop will also prepare them for a range of other possible careers in the media, in administration, in business and in education; in fact, any job where the ability to apply critical thinking to problems, to conduct independent research and to communicate the results of ones work to others are required.

Students also study up to two of the languages offered at Essex: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese, completing at least one language to Mastery level. Each of these languages is widely used in the business world, and can take students to a level of near-fluency, and so many graduates go on to develop successful global careers with international firms looking for language specialists.

Essex is a leading UK university for language and linguistics research, a place where talented students become part of an academic community in which the majority of research is rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, placing the school firmly within the top 10 departments in the UK and ranked among the top 150 Linguistics departments in the world according to the QS World University Rankings.

Companies and organizations in the UK and abroad are struggling to find university graduates who are fluent in at least one other language, apart from English.

Being an Essex modern languages graduate places students in a very advantageous position. They will be able to speak and write fluently, or to a very competent standard, in up to four languages. Language skills are in scarce supply and can be used in almost any job.

Graduates become teachers, translators, administrators and journalists. Their valued language skills have enabled them to work in diverse fields including banking, entertainment, media, education and tourism, as well as for a host of UK and international companies. In particular, a degree in modern languages lends itself to a career in education, translation, interpretation, trade, PR, communications, immigration or diplomacy.

For example, one of the recent graduates is now a newspaper editor in Spain, while another teaches modern languages in Southampton.