1 / 14

Meeting the Current Challenges

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. Making the case for languages in a competitive knowledge-based economy.

tavita
Download Presentation

Meeting the Current Challenges

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

  2. Languages for Business and Employability Making the case for languages in a competitive knowledge-based economy

  3. ‘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 What is business saying? Employers and business

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

  5. Languages for Export Employers and business • 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

  6. Languages for Inward Investment Employers and business • 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

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

  8. Languages for Internationalisation Employers and business • 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

  9. Languages for UK’s multilingual and multicultural workforce Employers and business • 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

  10. 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

  11. Making the Case for languages HEIs • 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

  12. Languages for Business and Employability Making the case for languages in a competitive knowledge-based economy

  13. Contact details • Linda Cadier • Senior Adviser, Links into Languages • Subject Centre LLAS • University of Southampton • Tel: 01425 656702 • Mb: 07974 201129 • E-mail: l.cadier@soton.ac.uk

  14. References • CBI Education and Skills Survey, 2009 • Effects on the European Union Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise (ELAN): Hagen, S . 2007 • 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 www.cilt.org.uk/piblications : for employer and business references quoted in presentation • Subject Centre for Languages, LLAS www.llas.ac.uk • Links into Languages www.linksintolanguages.ac.uk • Routes into Languages www.rotiesintolanguages.ac.uk • Business Language Champions http://www.cilt.org.uk/workplace/business_language_champions.aspx • Regional Language Networks http://www.cilt.org.uk/workplace/employer_support/in_your_area.aspx • British Chambers of Commerce www.britishchambers.org.uk

More Related