The British economy should be making much more use of language skills, using them effectively to support international trade, to attract inward investment, to boost tourism and to improve the quality of our service industries. Supported by One North East, the Regional Language Network (RLN) works to promote a greater national capability in language and cultural skills for business and employment.
The RLN aims to provide the business community with a central point of contact to facilitate and promote communication between businesses, language service providers and key players in the North East. We are also working with colleagues in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, to provide a much needed labour market intelligence (LMI) service focusing on foreign language capability and demand in the Northern regions.
Why Languages?
Research shows that UK nationals are at a disadvantage in the international jobs market through lack of language skills (see Talking World Class: Impact of Language Skills on the UK economy in Key Documents).
- Export sales of companies that most value languages are growing by, on average, £290,000 per company per year.
- English is not enough. 94% of the world’s population does not speak English as their first language. 75% do not speak English at all.
- Languages improve the quality of life. People who use languages at work can earn between 8% and 20% more than those who do not. Graduates in languages have lower rates of unemployment than those in many other disciplines.
- A little language can make a lot of difference. Different jobs need different levels of skills: fluency in another language is not always needed. For many jobs, employers look for people who can handle simple phone calls or build rapport using a few friendly phrases.
Links
www.rln-northeast.com
www.cilt.org.uk
Data and Research Bulletin May 2009 - Supply and Demand [pdf]
(249 KB)
Northern Language - Survey 2006 Final Report [pdf]
(970 KB)
Northern Language - Survey 2006 Summary Results [pdf]
(599 KB)
North East England Migrant Workers - July 2006 [pdf]
(93 KB)
Talk World Class [pdf]
(5.40 MB)
