Language education 'an important part of teaching jobs'

Research has suggested that primary and secondary teachers could improve their pupils' chances of future employment by providing comprehensive foreign language education.

According to a study commissioned by the National Centre for Languages, CILT, modern languages such as French, German and Spanish are more important to the futures of today's pupils as science and maths subjects.

Teresa Tinsley, director of communications at CILT, said: "It is going to be much more important to have a second language in the future than it has been in the past.

"There are many more multinational companies, foreign owned companies [and] there's going to be competition for jobs."

A survey of employers conducted as part of the study found that foreign languages were rated second only to IT skills in terms of the most desirable traits a job applicant can have, with 43 per cent claiming it would boost an applicant's chances of securing employment.

Posted by Harriet McGowan

Published On 26/02/2010