People with languages earn more
Wednesday, 15th April 2009
According to a report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), graduates who studied modern foreign languages have higher salaries on average than graduates who studied other subjects.
Many of them (73%) are in employment six months after graduation, while most of the rest are pursuing further studies, and 89% are in employment three and a half years after graduation.
According to a report in The Independent, the ability to speak a foreign language can boost your lifetime earnings by up to £145,000. The report is based on a survey of human resources managers in 2,700 UK companies. The managers, who work across ten different industries, were asked about their attitudes to foreign languages skills among employees. It indicated that people who know a foreign language or two are more likely to be offered jobs by over half of those surveyed, and would receive higher salaries than those without language skills.
Those who earn £25,818, the national average salary, can earn up to 12% extra if they have knowledge of a foreign language. This is roughly an extra £3,000 per year, or some £145,000 over the whole of their career. Those who earn higher salaries could earn up to 20% extra, or £423,000 over their career.
Learning foreign languages can lead not only to higher salaries, but also gives you access to a greater range of jobs in more countries. EU citizens, for example, have the right to work anywhere in the EU, and those who speak two or more European languages are more likely to be offered jobs. The most useful languages to learn are French, German, Spanish and Italian.
In UK there are many companies that sell their products or services in foreign countries and are therefore keen to employ people with knowledge of foreign languages. The demand for languages is highest in such sectors as sales, customer services, IT, market research and finance.
For those who would prefer to work in a field directly related to languages, interpreting and/or translating can be an interesting and well-paid career, especially if you work for international organisations such as the European Parliament or the UN. There’s also language teaching and speech and language therapy – if you train for these in the UK most or all or your fees will be paid, you can get bursaries to cover living expenses, and you receive a ‘golden hello’ upon completion of your training, as well as other bonuses.
Tags: spanish, french, german, italian, learning, languages, language
Posted by Simon Ager under Attitudes to Language Learning,
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