© CILT, the National Centre for Languages Author, Dominic Luddy. All content correct on April 5 th Slide show content must not be amended or augmented without author’s permission. Master is held at [event] [date] 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 2 Languages plus work experience 3 The right organisation 4 Which languages where? 5 Language bonuses 6 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 Services25.3 Wholesale & Retail Sales / Maintenance11.5 Banking & Finance 10.8 Public Administration9.2 Manufacturing9.0 Education8.0 Community / Social / Personal Services6.9 Transport / Communications6.9 Health / Social Work5.3 Hotel / Restaurants4.4 International Organisations0.2 *statistics supplied by Keith Marshall, Bangor University Interpreting or Translation1.6% 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 % French45 German36 Spanish22 Italian12 Dutch5 Japanese3 Chinese3 Russian2 Arabic2 Portuguese2 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 Science0.4 Education3.1 Law3.6 Architecture / Building / Planning3.8 German4.6 French4.8 All Modern Languages5.5 Mathematical Sciences6.2 English6.5 Psychology6.6 Business / Administration6.7 Humanities6.9 Sociology7.1 Engineering / Technology7.8 Computing8.9 Media Studies9.5 *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

© 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  BLIS Jobs  BLIS Courses  Careers factsheets  ELP & awards  Languages Work initiative

© CILT 2004 Find out more  CILT, the National Centre for Languages – 