Two facts are clear: language skills directly benefit our economy and we in the UK are not fulfilling our potential when it comes to acquiring language skills.

• English accounts for a declining share of internet traffic and world GDP
• We are not exploiting the potential of language skills to help us thrive in the global economy.  A cycle of linguistic underachievement is holding back British enterprise
• Our balance of trade is skewed towards countries which share our language
• Businesses that proactively use language skills achieve on average 45% more export sales and it has been estimated that improving language skills could add up to £21 billion per year to the UK economy
• Firms which cannot understand the language of tender documents fall at the first hurdle in taking advantage of opportunities to bid for European contracts
• 49% of employers are dissatisfied with university leavers’ foreign language skills, according to research by the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE)
• The CBI reports more than a third of employers specifically recruiting people for their language skills, yet research shows employers are increasingly forced to recruit overseas to meet this need
• British workers are disadvantaged in the European and global job markets if they do not speak another language
• Young Britons are less likely to take advantage of opportunities to gain international experience
• Three times more French, German and Spanish students take advantage of Erasmus-funded placements abroad as part of their university course. Lack of confidence in language skills is also a barrier to UK participation in the European work experience programme (Leonardo)
• A large proportion of employers place a premium on graduates with at least conversational fluency in another language. It is a concern to companies that these skills are increasingly rare.

“If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I’m buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen.” Willi Brandt, former Chancellor of Germany