Recent reports stress the importance of language skills for business

Communication and languages are crucial to business in a globalised economy. New evidence found in two reports published in the UK and in Ireland
Enterprises operating in international markets face many challenges with communication and languages. Two reports give an overview of the situation.
The Economist published the report Competing across borders: how cultural and communication barriers affect business. The survey was conducted between February and March 2012 and was targeted at 572 executives based in Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and Latin America. Interviews with independent experts and senior executives were also carried out.
The survey found out that almost two-thirds of organisations encounter difficulties with cross-border communication. Most companies understand the impact of effective cross-border communication but are not taking sufficient action to address the causes. In particular, almost 47% of them do not offer enough language training to their staff. However, half of the companies surveyed think that their workers need to speak another language in their job.
Another study was published by Forfás (Ireland's policy advisory board for enterprise and science) and by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). Key Skills for Enterprise to Trade Internationally sets out the skills and talent needed to drive Ireland’s trade and export performance in both existing and emerging overseas markets.
The report outlines the essential skills that individuals should develop to take employment opportunities arising within exporting companies. In particular, they need to improve foreign language proficiency.
The report makes specific recommendations to boost the supply of foreign language skills, in particular German, French, Spanish and Italian but also Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Arabic.
Read more on the Economist report and on the study published in Ireland.