A day in the life of Katherine Laux, Head of Design

Name: Katherine Laux
Role: Head of Design

“It's hard to describe a typical day because there isn't one! My job is really varied - that's what I love about it.

In any given week, one day I'll be on a client visit discussing their learning strategy, and the next day I'll be acting as a Design Mentor to one of our Senior Designers in a creativity session (Concept Lab). I feel very privileged to be leading the best design team in the UK.

I also work across the business, in Consulting with my colleague Steve or with Tracy and the Sales team.

Outside of work I try to take it easy, though my husband, Sven, has different ideas. The latest activity he enrolled me in is rock climbing, or Mission Impossible if you're me.

I prefer biking or walking in the Downs - check out the Argus website for good walks, if you're in the area. http://www.theargus.co.uk/whatson/walks

On a Sunday you'll find Sven and me at St Luke's, Prestonville doing the sound engineering. We're also researching a CMS for the church website and found this open source gem - take a look at http://www.joomla.org/

I have a passion for languages. At the moment I'm learning German at night class.

Learning a language makes me reflect on what we need as learners to put knowledge and skills into practice. I learnt French for 5 years at school but when I go to France I can hardly speak a word. I also learnt Spanish for 5 years, in Spain, where I did an intensive course and then went out to practise my skills in the real world. I'm now fluent.

So, what was it about living in Spain that made the learning experience successful?

My motivation to learn Spanish was high - I needed to use it to survive. I had exposure to how Spanish should be spoken and written; my course helped me accelerate my acquisition of language by showing me reusable patterns. Living in Spain enabled me to practise and practise, which turned passive understanding to active language production. Oh, and my best friends turned out to be my best coaches, correcting me and giving me feedback.

We can draw many parallels with how we learn languages and any new thing in or out of work. The subject is of particular interest to me - but I'll go further into that at another time.

By the way, my German isn't going so well at the moment - though it's nothing two weeks practising the language (skiing) in Austria couldn't sort out!