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Language education 'as important as maths and science'
26 February 2010
Modern languages such as French, German and Spanish are as important to the futures of today's pupils as science and maths subjects, it has been claimed.
A new study commissioned by the National Centre for Languages, CILT, found that foreign language capability came second only to IT skills among employers asked to list desirable skills for job candidates.
Teresa Tinsley, director of communications at CILT, said: "It is going to be much more important to have a second language in the future than it has been in the past.
"There are many more multinational companies, foreign owned companies [and] there's going to be competition for jobs."
She added that a large proportion of this competition could come from foreign nationals with a strong grasp of English as a second language.
Ms Tinsley said that languages such as Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese are increasing in popularity among employers as their global proliferation is increasingly recognised.