We believe that language skills can benefit our country before, during and after the Games. In customer services, in tourism, in boosting the ambition and achievement of young people, in aligning our skills base more closely to the needs of employers, and in capturing the potential of the Games for business success at the time and as a legacy for the future, languages must surely play a crucial role.

So how can language skills help to deliver a successful Games?

Languages are about communication, and as communication underpins all human activity, we need a very broad-based vision of where language skills fit in. There is a basic requirement that the Games be staged bilingually in French and English as the two official languages of the Olympic Movement; however in the recent past the most successful Games (Barcelona, Sydney) have been those that have gone beyond this minimum requirement and staged a multilingual Games. Use of others’ languages denotes respect, and reflects the egalitarian and democratic ideals of the Olympic movement.

Languages need to be embedded into planning at many different levels:

Professional linguists (interpreters and translators) - to ensure that the competition is staged efficiently and equitably, with respect for all the nations coming together to compete.

Other professionals - many professionals working to support the Games will need language skills to overcome practical communication barriers they face in their day to day work sales people, risk assessors, lawyers, caterers, police, emergency services and security, to name but a few. 

Volunteers
The Games Volunteer Programme plans to use the language skills of London’s local communities as a strength to make visitors feel at home. Up to 70,000 volunteers will be needed, to help with everything from car parking to media work. The official Volunteering Programme will be launched in 2010.

Building the infrastructure
There will be ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ of contracts, with opportunities for large, small and medium-sized businesses, who are already being advised to ‘get into shape now’ in order to pitch successfully. Many will need to build a strategy for languages within their planning in order to achieve credibility.

Tourism
If we want the Games to leave the lasting legacy of a thriving, innovative tourism industry described in the Tourism 2012 strategy consultation, one key change we must make is to build our capacity to communicate with people in their own languages. The Sector Skills Council People 1st have already identified a demand for languages from their employers and we need to respond to this.

Customer service
GoSkills, the Sector Skills Council for Passenger Transport, is taking the lead on customer service issues relating to the Games and has already conducted research showing the need for transport workers to possess language and cultural skills as well as other skills like heath and safety awareness, crowd control and first aid. London Underground, which already serves a largely multilingual customer base, is already taking a keen interest in this, and starting to include languages in training and recruitment policies. But the need, and the scope for lasting improvement, affects passenger transport workers throughout the country. Language training, say GoSkills, should begin well in advance of the Games.

The Arts and Culture
Languages also have a role to play in the Arts and in making the Games a truly global celebration. Music, dance and drama have the power to bridge cultures and make ideas in other languages accessible. We can share and celebrate the world’s cultures, with entertainment and educational and projects aimed at different age groups and audiences.