UK Businesses Refuse to Offer Language Learning despite EU Enlargement

European Day of Languages ñ It seems that the UK is determined to remain a monolingual island race when it comes to embracing European business opportunities. According to a new YouGov survey of 2500 UK employees commissioned by Rosetta Stone, 80% of people have never been offered the opportunity to learn a second language at work, despite EU expansion and tougher competition from European businesses.

This reluctance to offer language training perhaps explains why the UK was recently ranked bottom of the league table of 28 countries for language ability by CILT, the national languages centre and why, according to the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC), 20% of UK businesses have lost business opportunities because of their failure to embrace new language skills.

The YouGov survey also revealed that the majority of business executives are apathetic and not at all phased by their dismal language skills. Just 7% of respondents considered language skills the most important factor to consider if their company relocated overseas, with factors such as political instability (23%) and the countryís infrastructure (11%) scoring more highly. In line with the BCC research, several respondents also cited lost business opportunities caused by language barriers.

Surprisingly, despite factors such as a boom in trade with Russia (exports to Russia in 2005 reached an all-time high of 1.8bn according to UK Trade and Investment) and the EU accession of major Eastern European countries such as Poland in 2004, respondents do not equate learning Russian or Polish with economic success. Only 2% of executives questioned felt that it was important to learn these languages. Instead French and German were considered the most relevant languages to business success each securing a fifth of the votes.

In terms of ease of learning, Russian was considered the most difficult language to learn by 37% of respondents, compared to French and German which received just 1% of the vote.

James Pitman, UK Managing Director commented, ìOur survey clearly shows that UK businesses are stuck in a time warp in terms of language learning and are strangely apathetic about the situation. In 2007, the EU is expected to expand again and it is therefore shocking that 80% of businesses still refuse to offer any language training to their staff. It is little wonder they are losing business opportunities.î

ìLanguage learning is suffering in secondary education equally, which has been compounded by the governmentís ending of compulsory language learning. This yearís GCSE results showed a 13.2% decrease in the number of pupils taking French and 14.2% taking German from 2005. Yet with cost effective methods like online language learning widely available, there is no excuse for lack of language learning in schools and businesses in the UK. As research from the British Chamber of Commerce shows, there is a direct link between UK business success and language skills so from an economic perspective, failure to embrace languages is a risk that is simply not worth taking.î