1 / 19

[event] [date]

[event] [date]. Languages work! A guide to careers with languages. [presenter]. Why business needs people with languages …. 75% of the world’s population does not speak English Other European countries are aiming for people to have skills in three languages

bryga
Download Presentation

[event] [date]

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. [event][date] Languages work! A guide to careers with languages [presenter]

  2. Why business needs people with languages … • 75% of the world’s population does not speak English • Other European countries are aiming for people to have skills in three languages • 60% of British trade is with non-English speaking countries • Buy in your native language, sell in the customer’s language • British business has the poorest language skills in Europe – 1 in 5 aware of losing business

  3. Why business needs people with languages … • British businesses lose £millions every year because they can’t speak their customers’ language – many don’t realise they have a problem! • Expanded EU means even more mobility and contact with foreign languages • The Internet and globalisation mean that in business your next customer could be anywhere • A linguist with English mother tongue is extremely valuable

  4. Six key messages 1 4 Two career paths Which languages where? 5 2 Language bonuses Languages plus work experience 6 3 Room for all levels The right organisation

  5. Two career paths 1 • Specialist language occupations • Translation, teaching, interpreting • Occupations with languages • e.g. bilingual accounts, market research, international sales, bilingual customer support

  6. The jobs new Languages graduates do – 2002 % Business Services 25.3 Wholesale & Retail Sales / Maintenance 11.5 Banking & Finance 10.8 Public Administration 9.2 Manufacturing 9.0 Education 8.0 Community / Social / Personal Services 6.9 Transport / Communications 6.9 Health / Social Work 5.3 Hotel / Restaurants 4.4 International Organisations 0.2 Interpreting or Translation 1.6% *statistics supplied by Keith Marshall, Bangor University

  7. Languages plus work experience 2 • Importance of both – in specialist and non-specialist occupations • Ways of doing this: • holiday work experience, year abroad, combined degree/course, TEFL, working exchange, part-time work • Popular work / language combinations: • IT, Finance, pharmaceutical

  8. The right organisation 3 • Three things will dictate whether an organisation needs languages • Industry • Type of organisation • Functional area

  9. Organisation examples, by industry • Specialised contact centres – Prestige International • Telecommunications – T-Motion, Vodafone • Travel and tourism – British Airways • Market research – Voxpops, NOP • Media – BBC, Reuters • Car manufacturing – Peugeot • Banking/finance – HSBC, Citibank • IT – IBM • Public services – MI5, NHS

  10. Organisation types • Companies with any part of this profile like languages … • multinational or internationally networked • facing non-English speaking customers • foreign-owned • technology/telecommunication-driven • web-based • exporting/importing services or products

  11. Functional areas • Where communication is most important … • Sales • Marketing & PR • Customer support • Research • Also HR, IT, Finance in multinational organisations

  12. Which languages where 4 • What companies want … % French 45 German 36 Spanish 22 Italian 12 Dutch 5 Japanese 3 Chinese 3 Russian 2 Arabic 2 Portuguese 2 Source:Languages NTO / CILT audits

  13. Different languages for different jobs • Private sector • European and world languages (e.g. Finance – Arabic, German, Italian) • Public sector • Community languages (Panjabi, Urdu, Welsh, British Sign Language …) • Value of rare languages

  14. Language bonuses 5 • Perks of the job • Travel • Responsibilities • Funding support • 8–20% extra salary • Use of non-linguistic skills – listening, cultural awareness, summarising

  15. Unemployment rates among new language graduates in the UK • 6 months after graduation, 1996–2002 % Medicine / Dentistry / Vet Science0.4 Education 3.1 Law 3.6 Architecture / Building / Planning 3.8 German 4.6 French 4.8 All Modern Languages 5.5 Mathematical Sciences 6.2 English 6.5 Psychology 6.6 Business / Administration 6.7 Humanities 6.9 Sociology 7.1 Engineering / Technology 7.8 Computing 8.9 Media Studies 9.5 *statistics supplied by Keith Marshall, Bangor University

  16. And 18 months down the line • Survey in 1999 ‘Working Out’ • Only Maths and Computing more employable

  17. Room for all levels 6 • Operational usefulness from switchboard to contract negotiation • Value of cultural understanding • Ice-breaker • Continue learning with IWLP, evening classes, teach yourself, spend time in the country

  18. CILT’s resources • Website www.cilt.org.uk/careers • BLIS Jobs www.blis.org.uk/jobs • BLIS Courses www.blis.org.uk/courses • Careers factsheets • ELP & awards • Languages Work initiative

  19. Find out more • CILT, the National Centre for Languages • careers@cilt.org.uk • 020 7379 5101 • www.cilt.org.uk

More Related