Introduction
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papers |
Research Projects
Introduction | Education | Employment
Employment
Cross-sector
Sector-specific
Regional
Language professionals
Effects on the European Union Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise (ELAN): a research study on behalf of the European Commission
The motivation for the study arises from the Commission's Lisbon strategy (2000) to stimulate economic growth and employment and make Europe's economy the most competitive in the world. Language skills have been identified as a key factor in achieving this goal.
The study has been contracted by the European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture (Tender number EAC 89/04). It is intended to provide the Commission, and decision-makers in member states, with practical information and analysis upon which to base future policy proposals. It is also intended to provide practical information for European business.
Talking sense: A research study of language skills management in major companies
This study was commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council as part of its support for implementation of the Government's national strategy for languages for England. The research comprised two parallel and inter-related exercises, one telephone survey of major multinational companies involving approximately 50 respondentsin each of the UK, France and Germany, and one series of interviews with senior personnel in six UK-based companies identified as examples of best practice.
National Occupational Standards
National occupational standards are statements of the skills, knowledge and understanding needed in employment. They inform vocational qualifications and can be used for training, benchmarking, recruitment and retention. CILT, the National Centre for Languages, has responsibility for maintaining and developing national occupational standards in languages for work and standards for certain specialist language professions. These have been created through a long process of consultation with language professionals and employers, and are approved by the UK regulatory authorities.
Skills for Business Network
CILT, the National Centre for Languages collaborates closely with partners in the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils and other UK stakeholders to help inform, influence and support employers in identifying and tackling international communication skills needs.
INCA - Intercultural Competence Assessment
INCA, Intercultural Competence Assessment was a three-year Leonardo da Vinci II project, which ended in October 2004. The project partnership, drawn from several European countries, created a range of products for the assessment of intercultural competence and trialled these with apprentices in the engineering sector. Products developed include a framework of intercultural competence, a part-computerised suite of assessment tools, a record of intercultural competence and guidelines for their use.
Find out about other projects in Intercultural Skills...
Evaluation of the level and effectiveness of international communication in construction professional consultancies
A survey of construction consultancy practices based in England was conducted in order to establish their need for language skills (other than English), current and anticipated. The intention was to use the information to inform provision and quality development of learning programmes for the industry in Higher Education, and in pathways leading to HE.
Communication in the Construction Industry
Skills, Business and Adult Learning at CILT continues to project manage the survey of communication in the construction industry, in particular language and inter-cultural interaction between native English speakers and second language speakers.
e-skills: Language Skills Analysis Report, CILT, 2003
This report reviews the use of and need for language and cultural competence skills amongst companies in the e-skills sector: information technology, telecomms and contact centres. Based on the Language Skills Capacity Audits. This report analyses the subset of e-skills companies that participated in the research (167 companies in total), and highlights the demand for language skills in this sector.
SEMTA: Language Skills Analysis Report, CILT, 2003
This report reviews the use of and need for language and cultural competence amongst companies in the SEMTA sector: science, engineering and manufacturing technologies. Based on the Language Skills Capacity Audits. This report analyses the subset of SEMTA companies that participated in the research (780 companies in total), and highlights the demand for language skills in this sector.
(Regional) Language Networks
Language Networks and Regional Language Networks throughout the UK works with businesses and stakeholders to promote a greater national capability in language and cultural skills for business and employment. Many of these are engaged in research projects across or within sectors/sub-sectors.
Regional Language Skills Capacity Audits
This research plots provision for language learning in all sectors of education, and also surveys language services and the availability of native speakers in each region. Large-scale demand surveys have assessed businesses' use of languages, crucially revealing that one in five are losing money because of language barriers. Regional Language Networks are being developed to tackle these issues at source.
Translingual Skills
The initial stimulus for this project came from field research, which identified a demand amongst Welsh employers for staff with second language skills and for assessment and certification of that competence. The term 'translingual skills' distinguishes the kind of language user identified from the 'bilingual' user whose competence in both languages spoken is commonly perceived as very high.
CILT has developed a new set of standards, in draft form, to act as a benchmark for people who in the normal course of their regular work are able to resolve language barriers.
Language Trends 2005 - language service providers
Report on a survey carried out to look at trends of language and cultural service providers registered on CILT’s BLIS Professionals database. The survey highlights the extent to which these business sectors draw on expertise from translators, interpreters, language trainers and cultural-briefing consultants.
Workforce research: interpreting and translation
This report sets out the results of a survey initiated by the then Languages National Training Organisation (before the merger with CILT) with funding provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Language Group. The survey examines the UK workforce in the professions of interpreting and translation. It takes account of responses from individual professionals, translation and interpreting companies, training and assessing organisations and users.
