MADRID – Spain’s Cervantes Institute will teach Spanish to some 100,000 Starbucks workers throughout the United States.

By virtue of an agreement signed Tuesday, those 100,000 workers will be able to learn Spanish via the Institute’s online Virtual Spanish Classroom (Aula Virtual de Español), or AVE.

The course will last one year and quarterly reports will be issued to evaluate how the students are progressing in learning the language, according to a press release on Tuesday by the Cervantes Institute.

Starbucks will be able to follow the Spanish studies of its workers via AVE, which will be available on the intranet of the Seattle-based chain.

Also in Seattle is the first Cervantes Classroom that the Institute opened in the United States, located at the University of Washington.

The Seattle Classroom will kick off the training program, which will start with a pilot course taught by professors from UW’s Spanish department.

When the course ends, students will receive certification of their knowledge of Spanish with a Diploma of Spanish as a Foreign Language awarded by the Cervantes Institute in the name of Spain’s Education Ministry.

In accord with the agreement, Cervantes Institute director Carmen Caffarel on Tuesday in Madrid received a U.S. delegation headed by Washington state Lt. Gov. Mark A. Emmert. EFE