Presentation of the main points of the regional synthesis report

Presentation of the main points of the regional synthesis report onLinguistic and cross-cultural skills and competences for enhanced opportunities on the European and international labo

Presentation of the main points of the regional synthesis report on

Linguistic and cross-cultural skills and

competences for enhanced opportunities on the European and international labour market

TNP3-D Conference West - Friday 29 June 2007, Southampton

Brigitte Forster Vosicki, Université de Lausanne Regional synthesis report sub-project 2 - Western Europe: Gail Taillefer Updates of national reports by: BE: Ian Tudor, IR: Fionnuala Kennedy, FR: Gail Taillefer/Claire Lecointre, CH: Brigitte Forster Vosicki, UK: Elisabeth Lillie

West group : countries included

• Belgium

• Germany

• France

• Ireland

• Lichtenstein

• Luxembourg

• Netherlands

• Switzerland

• United Kingdom

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Economic, societal and labour market

• All countries: similar economic context

• Growing importance of the service sector (high and low

qualifications) movement from agricultural and industrial societies towards a knowledge-based economy

• Rapid evolution and massive use of information and

communication technology

• Internationalisation of all sectors of society

• Immigration and mobility of workforce (within EU, migration

from new member states)

Economic, societal and labour market

• High-level trade and intensification of business relations both within the EU and at international level carried out by large,

medium and small companies

• Economic growth and decreasing unemployment

• Increasing outsourcing and investment, cross-cultural mergers

• Globalisation of not only production but also service activities

• New job profiles

 Growing interdependency and action in a European and whole-world working space - high level of international contacts

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Economic, societal and labour market

• Dramatic changes in recent years - one of the fastest growing

economies in the developed world/ prosperous member of the EU

• Rapid growth of migratory movements – from a monocultural to a multicultural society – increase in number of languages spoken

• Foreign investment esp USA (ICT sector) – English-speaking

with broad access to the European market

• Booming construction and service sectors/manpower shortages

Ireland

Economic, societal and labour market

Lack of communicative language and intercultural skills

• lost business

• barrier to trade

• influence on quality of work

Negative influence on competitiveness

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Main consequences for skills and

competences needed for sustainable

 Professional relevance of linguistic and intercultural competences: more interaction, negotiation and exchange necessary in a multilingual and multicultural context

 Growing importance of extended plurilingual and pluricultural competences as a resource at individual and societal level

Languages needed

 English is becoming more important but also other languages: European and extra-European languages

Main consequences for skills and

competences needed for sustainable

• Linguistically and interculturally well-qualified and

mobile graduates able to act effectively in multilingual situations and with people from different cultural

backgrounds

• Confident and competent users of languages in a variety

of situations

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Main skills and competences needed

• Understanding and interacting in job-related communication situations (e.g hosting a visitor, telephoning, travelling, talking about your job, giving presentations, etc.)

• Participating in, and leading, meetings/negotiations

• Networking and collaborating in face-to-face and virtual environments

• Communicating in order to manage international relations and customer contacts

• Reading and writing e-mails and short factual texts

• Understanding and interacting in important multicultural contexts (i.e with an awareness of intercultural differences in communication)

In a multilingual and multicultural context

Diversity of linguistic contexts and effects on the perception of language needs

3 types of groups (1/3)

• Small countries with more than one national language

• Languages high on the list of employment requirements for

graduates, important factor of employability

• English plays a significant role, but two or more languages

necessary

• National languages necessary for domestic employability

• Many companies have contacts in foreign languages – plurilingual repertoire factor of competitiveness

BE, CH (LU, NE, LI)

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Diversity of linguistic contexts

• Role of English in the global market place

• Companies and sizable section of population: unawareness of the importance

of foreign languages and intercultural skills

• Political level : promotion of language learning

• Decline in foreign language learning at tertiary level education, even though language graduates most immediately employable group

• Low investment in human resources (UK) – low level of competence

• National deficiencies supplemented through recruitment of foreign workers – thus avoiding language and cultural barriers in their different markets

• Promotion of intercultural competences even without foreign language skills (IR)

Ireland/UK

Diversity of linguistic contexts

• Large countries with one national language

• Predominance of English (other languages exist, but tendency to regression)

France/Germany

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Reactions and developments in Higher

Education (HE)

• All countries: at HE level – growing awareness of the

importance of languages for employability / new initiatives and offers at BA and MA level (Bologna structure)

• All countries apart from France: languages not systematically integrated in study programmes of different faculties

• France: languages integrated in study programmes - often

English – dissatisfaction with language preparation in HE

(competences and level of competences – differences

between highly selective HE institutions and other

universities)

Future prospects and needs – similar among

• Need for more structured and continuous cooperation and consultations with employers and graduates as a

basis for curriculum development and innovation (UK tradition)

• Need for student tracking/needs analyses/surveys

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Future prospects and needs – similar among

• Plurilingual and outcome oriented approach and

development of intercultural and lifelong learning skills

• Comparability and transparency through the use of European standards (Common European Framework of Reference for languages - CEFR)/level descriptors

• Modularisation and different flexible scenarios for language learning in a lifelong learning perspective/pedagogical

development/teacher training

Future prospects and needs

• IR: « market » foreign languages better – show how they can provide a

competitive advantage

• UK: ascertain actual level of foreign language skills

• BE: convince graduates of the importance of language learning –

develop stategies to motivate students

• FR: raise language awareness, meta-awareness of language learning, use

of the European Language Portfolio and CEFR

• CH: Need for development of common standards for quality and for

research to develop better understanding of the impact of plurilingualism

on employability and competitiveness