As the name suggests, the aim of the SWITCH-competition is to encourage the development of skills in switching between different languages.

The competition on 14 March was organized by the Styrian school board and hosted at the European Centre for Modern Languages. Nearly 100 children between the ages of 15 and 18 took part in the competition which has become a popular annual event in Graz. In an interview situation with a panel of native speakers the pupils switch between English and a second language of their choice (French, Italian, Spanish, Russian). Winners were announced for each pair of languages, however in an Olympic year the importance of participating rather than winning was underlined by the judges, who rated the linguistic dexterity of the pupils as the highest since the competition began in 2010.