Meeting the Current Challenges Languages and employability, entrepreneurship and employer engagement ‘Languages for business and employability’ Linda Cadier 23 rd October 2009

Languages for Business and Employability HEIs Graduates with languages Employers and business Making the case for languages in a competitive knowledge-based economy

What is business saying? ‘ The UK places a premium on staff who can communicate in a foreign language particularly when coupled with an understanding of overseas business cultures ’ CBI Education and Skills Survey, 2009 Employers and business

Where and why are languages needed? Enterprise and Export Growth Inward Investment Tourism Business Excellence Skills for Employability Social and Educational-value Good relations in the workplace and the community Employers and business

Languages for Export The common misconception is that English is generically the lingua franca of all international business 75% of the world’s population do not speak English as their first language Where the language of our customers is not English we sell more than we buy Small companies around the world do not always have access to English speakers Understanding the local and business culture is key and that often accompanies language learning Employers and business

Languages for Inward Investment Skills are a major determinant in Foreign Direct Investment decisions ‘Online retailer Amazon moves its European customer service centre from the UK to the Irish Republic, to take advantage of better language skills’ BBC News, March 2006 Employers and business

Languages for 2012 and Tourism VisitBritain calculates a potential benefit of £2 billion for the visitor economy from overseas visitors 2012 is an opportunity for the UK ‘to shine’. Employers and business

Languages for Internationalisation UK companies limited by their lack of ambition and entrepreneurship to expand into non-English speaking markets UK executives able to negotiate in a language other than English is half the EU average Employers and business

Languages for UK’s multilingual and multicultural workforce Long term migration into the UK continues to grow Food, construction, retail, hospitality, tourism and public sectors operate in staff and client multilingual and multicultural environments Good communication is key for deliver of health and safety, effective communication and an inclusive service delivery Employers and business

Language Graduates Highly employable: strength of language degrees Need for enterprise skills Ability to speak another language is ‘critical to success’, Korn/Ferry, 2005 Only one-third of UK graduates go abroad to work compared to two-thirds of mainland European graduates Set in context of language skills of the UK as lowest in Europe Graduates with languages

Making the Case for languages Understand the demand for languages and how to make the case to graduates Encourage languages and enterprise Subject Centre for Languages, LLAS Routes into Languages Links into Languages Business Language Champions Regional Language Networks HEIs

Languages for Business and Employability HEIs Language Graduates Employers and business Making the case for languages in a competitive knowledge- based economy

Contact details Linda Cadier Senior Adviser, Links into Languages Subject Centre LLAS University of Southampton Tel: Mb:

References CBI Education and Skills Survey, 2009 Effects on the European Union Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise (ELAN): Hagen, S Languages and Enterprise: Having an idea and making it happen, Kneale, P., Sim, P. Routes into Languages, 2007 Meeting the Global Challenge: The economic case for languages in the South East, SEEDA, 2007 available from : for employer and business references quoted in presentation Subject Centre for Languages, LLAS Links into Languages Routes into Languages Business Language Champions Regional Language Networks British Chambers of Commerce