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Languages work!A guide to careers with languages

[presenter]

© CILT 2004

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

© CILT 2004

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

© CILT 2004

Six key messages

1

Two career paths

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Languages plus work experience

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The right organisation

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Which languages where?

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Language bonuses

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Room for all levels

© CILT 2004

Two career paths

Specialist language occupations– Translation, teaching, interpreting

Occupations with languages– e.g. bilingual accounts, market research,

international sales, bilingual customer support

1

© CILT 2004

%Business Services 25.3Wholesale & Retail Sales / Maintenance 11.5 Banking & Finance 10.8Public Administration 9.2Manufacturing 9.0Education 8.0Community / Social / Personal Services 6.9Transport / Communications 6.9Health / Social Work 5.3Hotel / Restaurants 4.4

International Organisations 0.2

*statistics supplied by Keith Marshall, Bangor University

Interpreting or Translation 1.6%

The jobs new Languages graduates do – 2002

© CILT 2004

Languages plus work experience

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

2

© CILT 2004

The right organisation

Three things will dictate whether an organisation needs languages – Industry– Type of organisation– Functional area

3

© CILT 2004

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

        

                        

© CILT 2004

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

© CILT 2004

Functional areas

Where communication is most important …– Sales– Marketing & PR– Customer support– Research– Also HR, IT, Finance in multinational organisations

© CILT 2004

%French 45German 36Spanish 22Italian 12Dutch 5Japanese 3Chinese 3Russian 2Arabic 2Portuguese 2

Source:Languages NTO / CILT audits

Which languages where

What companies want …

4

© CILT 2004

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

© CILT 2004

Language bonuses

Perks of the job– Travel– Responsibilities– Funding support– 8–20% extra salary– Use of non-linguistic skills – listening, cultural

awareness, summarising

5

© CILT 2004

%Medicine / Dentistry / Vet Science 0.4Education 3.1Law 3.6Architecture / Building / Planning 3.8German 4.6French 4.8All Modern Languages 5.5Mathematical Sciences 6.2 English 6.5Psychology 6.6Business / Administration 6.7Humanities 6.9Sociology 7.1Engineering / Technology 7.8Computing 8.9Media Studies 9.5

*statistics supplied by Keith Marshall, Bangor University

Unemployment rates among new language graduates in the UK

6 months after graduation, 1996–2002

© CILT 2004

And 18 months down the line

Survey in 1999 ‘Working Out’ Only Maths and Computing more employable

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Unemployed 3.7 2.2 5.4 5.1 4.5 2.4 2.5 0.5 3.4

© CILT 2004

Room for all levels

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

6

© CILT 2004

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

© CILT 2004

Find out more

CILT, the National Centre for Languages– careers@cilt.org.uk– 020 7379 5101

www.cilt.org.uk