We have extracted the key messages on languages skills, business, employment and the economy from the following reports.
author Dr Begoña Rodríguez de Céspedes, University of Portsmouth / ATC (November 2022)
Key messages on languages:
Languages are very much in demand across every industry sector. German is the most requested language, followed by three other major European languages: French, Spanish and Italian (71).
The most common job sectors requiring a second language are:
- Customer service, customer support and call centre
- Sales, account management and business development
- Education
- Reception, Administration and office support
- Marketing, market research, digital marketing and PR
- Translation and interpreting services
- Finance, accountancy and banking
- HR and recruitment
- It and technology
Traditional European languages are still very much needed across all job sectors in the UK. In particular, German is in very high demand across all sectors. Languages are needed for the markets to thrive and the economy to grow.
The UK needs to invest in language learning and policymakers need to support changes in current practices to encourage the uptake of languages across all education levels.
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author RAND Europe, (2022)
Key messages on language skills:
- UK exports are predicted to increase if there is an increase in languages: a full eradication of language barriers with Arabic-, Chinese-, French- and Spanish-speaking countries could increase UK exports annually by about £19bn.
- Investing in languages education in the UK will most likely return more than the investment cost. The study estimates benefit-to-cost ratios of about 2:1 for promoting Arabic, French, Mandarin or Spanish education, meaning that spending £1 could return about £2.
- Having a common language can, all else being equal, reduce trade barriers and foster trade, akin to free-trade agreements.
- Learning additional languages enhances human capital, with multilingual individuals potentially earning higher wages and having better labour-market outcomes.
- While English plays an important role in determining business relations worldwide, it is not the sole driver in certain sectors and other languages matter equally, if not more, in reducing trade barriers.
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author Aston University, (2021)
Key messages on language skills:
- Language capacity has a strong, direct and positive relationship with export orientation which refers to the company generating, responding to or disseminating export intelligence and analysis for international markets.
- Language capacity also has a significant direct relationship on export sales, growth and profits, as well as the company’s networking capabilities and value-based selling activities, indicating that SMEs embracing language capabilities are more successful in exporting than those who do not.
- Staff training and willingness to invest in translation and language services are the two most important drivers facilitating language capacity within a company. Staff members’ linguistic competencies and cultural awareness are necessary for language capacity.
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author SCDI, (2020)
Key messages on language skills:
Scotland faces a linguistic and cultural awareness skills gap. A lack of language skills across society is a barrier to many businesses exporting and the further internationalisation of the Scottish economy.
Improving the workforce’s language skills could boost Scottish GDP by up to £6.3 billion by reducing linguistic and cultural awareness barriers to internationalisation.
In an increasingly global economy and society, demand for language knowledge and skills and socio-cultural awareness will only increase
Language barriers are a significant barrier to the key objective of further internationalisation of the Scottish economy. Scottish businesses are often unable to maximise opportunities for increasing their exports to key target markets due to a lack of linguistic skills or socio-cultural awareness in their workforce
The Scottish Government, local authorities and employers should escalate investment in Modern Languages education and linguistic skills in the workforce to close the linguistic skills and cultural awareness gap
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author CBI/Pearson, (2019)
Key messages on language skills:
- Foreign languages and cultural understanding will be vital for ‘Global Britain’…
- Learning a foreign language can greatly benefit young people by introducing them to new cultures and dramatically expanding their horizon.
- For the government vision of ‘Global Britain’ to be delivered, businesses need people who can communicate with customers and suppliers around the world.
- For firms that need employees with languages other than English, major European languages continue to be those most in demand: German (37%), Spanish (35%) and French (32%).
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author British Academy, (2019)
Key messages on language skills:
A coordinated, strategy for languages in the UK could help to:
- Create a global Britain that forges stronger trade and business links.
- Create the mindset of cultural agility which enhances employability.
- Strengthen the UK’s capacity for research and innovation—in science, technology, engineering, culture, the arts, humanities, social sciences, and many industries
- Raise attainment standards across the school curriculum. Research has shown that languages are key facilitating subjects: they help with literacy and improve children’s access to other subjects within school.
- Enhance skills and productivity in many sectors which face a language skills crisis, including the tourism and hospitality sector.
- Further strengthen our diplomacy and soft power, our defence and security, and our work in international development.
- Improve social mobility by giving all children the language skills that foster literacy, educational attainment, and a confident mindset.
- Build social cohesion. Valuing ‘community’ languages aids social integration and national linguistic capacity, strengthening security and diplomacy.
- Improve the quality and accessibility of public service interpreting and translation
- Enhance our well-being: acquiring even basic competence in an additional language opens up our understanding of other cultures, our opportunities, our travel, our contacts, and our capacity to engage with those who are different from us.
- Improve health and reduce health expenditure: research is beginning to suggest that the onset of dementia occurs earlier in monolinguals than in bilinguals, and that monolinguals recover more slowly from strokes.
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author CBI, (2018)
Key messages on language skills:
If the UK is to be successful as an open trading nation, a culture shift is needed to make the workforce more globally-orientated by default. This fundamentally requires more of its people to be able to communicate adequately in new markets and understand overseas environments and cultures.
The government must ensure the UK remains internationally competitive and that people are ready – skilled and equipped to take advantage of the opportunities. Vital to future prosperity and export performance are science, technology, engineering and maths subjects (STEM), as well as language skills.
The British Council predicts that the top five languages needed for the UK to remain competitive globally are: Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic and German. If there is a lack of wider provision of foreign languages for children, UK business will suffer and will be unable to exploit global opportunities effectively.
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author British Academy, British Academy (November 2017)
Key messages on language skills:
- Skills of critical analysis, problem solving, negotiation and communication, speaking other languages and understanding other cultures have intrinsic value with huge benefits for society, contributing to social cohesion at home and the UK’s prosperity and security abroad.
- We live in an increasingly diverse, multicultural society. In an increasingly global labour market and with more mobility in the workforce, the world is more interconnected than ever. Language skills, intercultural understanding, global awareness and an international mind set will be crucial for the future of the UK economy, society and for UK security and diplomacy.
- AHSS graduates are already equipped with many of the skills required to thrive in a global context. These skills are not just limited to language and area studies graduates, but are found in many AHSS disciplines, including for example in history and geography, along with the broader skills of communication, diplomacy, negotiation and empathy which are shared across AHSS disciplines.
- British Academy recommends that Government, universities and learned societies work together to realise the potential and added-value of AHSS as a context in which language, digital and data skills can be developed to ensure that the UK has the skills needed for productivity and growth in the 21st century
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author British Council, British Council (2017)
Key messages on language skills:
- Language competence is far more than just another tool in the box; it is a prerequisite and a facilitator for the development of a wide spectrum of other skills and attributes.
- Without language skills, the UK loses out through the restricted ability to communicate internationally.
- Without language skills, the UK loses out through the closing down of opportunities for overseas work experience, a lack of international business sense, a failure to appreciate that other cultures have different ways of doing things and a potential tendency to overestimate the global importance of British culture.
- Other languages are needed not only for success in the global economy but to build trust, deepen international influence and cultural relationships, and to keep our country safe.
- The capacity of our country’s population to engage internationally will be central to strengthening successful economic, political, cultural and people-to-people relationships in Europe and globally in years to come.
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