In a recent poll of 500 companies, one in four said the ability to speak a second language would give a candidate the edge when applying for a job. In addition, when describing what makes a candidate more employable, companies ranked knowledge of a foreign language second only to IT skills.
The survey also revealed that three years after leaving university, the average wage of a languages graduate is higher than graduates of engineering, maths, physics and chemistry.
Details of the survey, examples of languages in the workplace and comments from ALL’s Past President Pauline Swanton are included in a piece on the BBC website.