Etxepare Basque Institute awarded the BIKAIN gold certificate

The Etxepare Basque Institute received the BIKAIN gold certificate yesterday at an event held at the Kursaal in San Sebastián. This certificate accredits a certain level of standardization in the presence, use and management of Basque language by an entity in the socio-economic field.

The Etxepare Basque Institute received the BIKAIN gold certificate yesterday at an event held at the Kursaal in San Sebastián. This certificate accredits a certain level of standardization in the presence, use and management of Basque language by an entity in the socio-economic field.

BIKAIN is an official, public cost-free certificate granted by the Basque Government to companies and institutions. The certificate, which has been awarded for 10 years, is an assessment of the use of Basque in the services and working relationships of the institutions and rewards their level of commitment to the language. At the request of different Basque institutions, the evaluation team visits the center and analyzes the indicators included in the Standard Reference Framework (EME) to assess the presence, use and management of Basque. EME has two pillars - Service language and Working language - and 6 first-level elements - corporate image, relations with clients (individuals) and the public, internal communication and work tools, management of people, external relations, and the management system.

Once each element has been rated and the overall score obtained (a maximum of 1000 points), the company or entity is eligible for either the basic level bronze certificate (minimum 200 points), the mid-level silver certificate (minimum 500 points), or the higher level gold certificate (minimum 800 points). In addition to promoting the Basque language and culture throughout the world, the Etxepare Basque Institute strives to promote the normalization of our language in its daily activity. Last night Etxepare was awarded the highest-level gold certificate.

The award was accepted by Etxepare director, Irene Larraza, with other members of the Institute also at the event. A total of 25 companies and entities received the Basque quality certificate yesterday.