Henry Samman Fund helps Chris prepare for international career and polish his language skills at British Chilean Chamber

Pictured at Exponor 2015 are Chris Hardley (centre) with the Director and Sales Manager of Don Valley Engineering (a Yorkshire firm based in Doncaster), the Director of Best-Chem Ltd (Birmingham based), and the Director of MCM, a Chilean mining equipment company. Exponor is a huge mining and related industry exhibition which takes place every two years in the northern Chilean city of Antofagasta.

THE Chamber’s Henry Samman Fund has been supporting student Chris Hardley’s education in Hispanic Studies and Politics in Chile, while simultaneously honing his Spanish and Portuguese language skills.

In his report on his 15 months in South America, Chris thanked the Hull & Humber Chamber for its support, without which he says, he would not have been able to manage as he only earns £45 per week through his internship with the British Chilean Chamber of Commerce.

Following his success at the Chamber, Chris was offered a temporary position as the Newton Fund Co-ordinator with the British Embassy in Santiago to cover maternity leave. The Fund is a UK-Chile research collaboration. “These opportunities are very much aligned with my career goals in international trade, policy, exports, defence policy and foreign diplomacy,” he said.

“My language skills in Spanish and Portuguese have improved so much that many people now believe I’m Chilean! However, my pasty skin gives me away in the end!”

Chris says he led meetings with high level governmental advisers and translated for visiting delegations. He even translated a conversation between an ex-minister of the Chilean Government and Her Majesty’s Ambassador, which were all linguistically challenging.

His time abroad has allowed him to immerse himself in Chilean and Latin culture by living and working with locals and also with other nationalities such as Brazilians, Argentinians, or Uruguayans. This has enabled him to understand South American societies, systems, customs, laws, how they do business, and how things get done in the region which can be very different to how things get done in the UK or EU. He has also learned how to manage workloads, deal with clients and how to network, which he believes is something that cannot be learned in the lecture hall and will give him a head start when he graduates.

Chris says the incredible contacts he’s made in the UK, Chile and elsewhere, has really set him up for his future career. During the first six months of his placement with the Chamber, he worked as an assistant in the membership finances department dealing with everything from monthly accounting, maintaining membership databases, brokering exclusive discounts for members, preparing documents for the board of directors, and formulating a strategic membership growth plan based on the economic synergies between Chile and the UK as drawn from export and import data.

He also organised a weekly English Conversation Club for business executives which was rated the second best Chamber service in their annual survey. He also worked with the Overseas Business Network Initiative between the British Chambers of Commerce, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) as part of David Cameron’s push towards £1-trillion in UK exports by 2020.

“The position of Newton Fund Co-ordinator was the crown jewel of my time abroad and I am rather proud of being offered it,” Chris said. “It was a large step up in responsibility from my more junior positions.

“This final position will bring to an end what has been an excellent 15 months in Latin America which have developed me not just professionally, but as a person too”.