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Languages, graduate skills and employability AULC Conference 2012

Languages, graduate skills and employability AULC Conference 2012. Jim Coleman, The Open University Chair, UCML. UCML. University Council of Modern Languages (1993)

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Languages, graduate skills and employability AULC Conference 2012

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  1. Languages, graduate skills and employabilityAULC Conference 2012 Jim Coleman, The Open University Chair, UCML.

  2. UCML • University Council of Modern Languages (1993) • Over-arching body representing virtually all departments and professional associations in modern languages, linguistics and area studies • UCML Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland

  3. UCML plenary • Friday 13 January • London School of Economics • Afternoon session 14:00-16:00 ‘Language graduates and the challenges of employability’ • Anne Marie Graham: UCML’s Labour Market Intelligence in Shaping the Future • Dr Adam Marshall, Director of Policy and External Affairs, British Chambers of Commerce • Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, International Business Development Director, BAE Systems, former UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan

  4. Language skills stand out Incapable of holding a conversation in another language (Eurobarometer 2006)

  5. Recording and evidencing graduate skills • 1990s ‘graduateness’ agenda • Subject mastery: (knowledge and understanding) • Intellectual/cognitive • Practical • Self/individual • Social/people

  6. Recording and evidencing graduate skills • Jocelyn Wyburd ‘The Languages Graduate’ http://www.ucml.ac.uk/sites/default/files/shapingthefuture/101/6%20-%20Jocelyn%20Wyburd%20Emp%20resource%20template_0.pdf offers a grid: • Skills and attributes : how obtained : comments • Linguistic • Cultural and Intercultural • Intellectual • Employment specific • Personal • Each with sub-headings > awareness > evidence

  7. Recording and evidencing graduate skills • Criticality • Johnston, Ford, Myles and Mitchell, Developing Criticality in Higher Education (Continuum 2011) • Critical thinking, critical self-reflection, critical action • Central role of work/study abroad

  8. Language graduates are highly employable – concerns • DEMOS (2007) As You Like It. Catching up in an age of global English • ‘With the dominance of English, we have failed to concentrate sufficiently on learning other languages and we miss out on the opportunities that they open’ • ‘All government departments should develop a language strategy’ • Government action ‘must entail motivating the learning of other languages’

  9. Language graduates are highly employable – concerns • UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2010 event • William Hague speech • FCO £1m to language skills • European Commission desperate for native English speakers with language skills • Common factor loss of UK influence in international fora

  10. Language graduates are highly employable - reports • ‘Modern Foreign Language graduates go into a wide variety of careers, where their many skills are recognised by employers. This is reflected in the fact that the mean salary of language graduates 3.5 years after graduation is £26,823, the highest mean salary of all of the SIV subjects – ahead of that of graduates of Engineering, Mathematical Sciences, Physics and Astronomy and Chemistry.’ Worton Report, 2009, p.21, citing Graduates and Their Early Careers (HEFCE, 2008) p.28.

  11. Language graduates are highly employable – reports • Economic case (public and private benefit) for languages is firmly made • Education and Employers Taskforce, The economic case for language learning and the role of employer engagement (December 2011): overview of evidence • ‘Cultural awareness and language ability matter both to individual enterprises (by determining exporting success) and to the nation (because participation in international trade can underpin significant productivity growth)’

  12. Language graduates are highly employable – reports • James Foreman-Peck (2007) Costing Babel: The Contribution of Language Skills to Exporting and Productivity • English mother tongue negative impact on SME exports • UK under-investment in languages cost £9 billion in 2005 • Equivalent to a tax on monolingualism of between 0.5% and 1.2% of GDP • Equivalent to a tax on exports of between 3% and 7%

  13. Language graduates are highly employable – reports • ELAN: Effects on the European Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise (2006) • http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/doc/elan_final_report_en.pdf • 2000 SMEs, 30 multinationals across Europe • Lack of language skills had cost businesses: 11% knew they had lost contracts, average loss over €100,000 per year per SME.

  14. Language graduates are highly employable – ELAN report • ‘English might be used for initial market entry, but longer-term business partnerships depended upon relationship building and relationship-management and, to achieve this, cultural and linguistic knowledge of the target country were essential.’ • In multinationals, ‘demand for skills in languages other than English was greater than the demand for English itself.’

  15. Language graduates are highly employable – reports • UCML’s Labour Market Intelligence in Shaping the Future http://www.ucml.ac.uk/sites/default/files/shapingthefuture/101/17%20-%20Anne%20Marie%20Graham%20emp%20resource%20template_0.pdf • Recruitment data (ads & interviews): • Language and intercultural skills strategically important • French/German • Spanish • Italian • Dutch

  16. Language graduates are highly employable – reports • Annual CBI reports, including Building for Growth: business priorities for education and skills. Education and Skills Survey 2011 • ‘Only a quarter (27%) of businesses say they have no need for foreign language skills among their employees. • ‘Language skills are particularly important in sectors such as manufacturing and banking, finance and insurance, reflecting the globalisation of organisations • ‘The greatest demand is for a level of language skills that can help in building relations with overseas contacts • ‘The major European languages are still those in greatest demand, but there are also widespread requirements for languages to help business in the major emerging economies.’

  17. Language graduates are highly employable – reports • ICM poll (2009) for Rosetta Stone • Overall, 52% found languages important for career • 61% with language skills said their career had benefited • UCML Scotland 2009 Scottish Funding Council input • http://www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/Our_Priorities_Skills_LearningtoWorkTwo/University_Council_of_Modern_Languages_Scotland_-_August_2009_%7B195321996%7D.pdf

  18. Language graduates are highly employable – reports • 2004 report for Michel Thomas: • HR managers in 2,700 companies would pay up to 12% extra for a second language (£3,000 a year) • 270 dating agencies said linguists easier to match with partners because ‘they are considered to be more intelligent and sexier’

  19. Are language graduates highly employable? • Yet a few economic studies (Klein 2007, Walker and Zhu 2010, Williams 2011) suggest that rewards for foreign language skills attach primarily to English: ‘Only in the UK is there apparently no income return to using a second language on the job’ • Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) surveys at 6 months and 42 months after graduation confirm that a language degree opens the door to a wide range of careers, but show language graduates with below-average salaries and job satisfaction – why?

  20. Language graduates • Language graduates are highly employable and make a vital contribution to UK plc, how can we explain HESA findings? • HESA statistics only include • those who responded to first destination survey • those with an email address • so may exclude the internationally mobile

  21. Language graduates • Language graduates are highly employable and make a vital contribution to UK plc, how can we explain HESA findings? • HESA data cover language specialists – specialists in e.g. Law, Economics with a language may be yet more employable • We train linguists to question everything – they are among the most critical respondents to the National Student Survey

  22. Language graduates • Language graduates are highly employable and make a vital contribution to UK plc, how can we explain HESA findings? • We fall short in preparing graduates for the job market – too few links with business • Language graduates are vital to economic performance in a global economy but undervalued by employers

  23. Vital but not valued • ‘If firms incorrectly do not see profit opportunities from exploiting language skills, then they will not demand them, and private returns – primarily wages – will be lower’ (Foreman-Peck, 2007)

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