According to the British Council, “Deficient language skills and the presumption that international business partners will speak English costs the UK economy about 3.5% of GDP”.
Businesses are expanding rapidly and one of the most common ways to do this is to tap into foreign markets. To do this successfully it is important to be able to communicate effectively with colleagues, suppliers and customers abroad to avoid embarrassing mistakes and problems. Employing foreign staff and learning a second language will open up many opportunities for your business. In this blog post we will discuss why now is the best time to invest in employee language training. Continue reading
If your business deals with clients or suppliers in abroad it is clear that if you can speak their native language you will be in a much better position to build a good rapport with them and create a more positive business relationship with them and ultimately trade more successfully. This blog post looks at other advantages your company could gain by learning to speak your client’s mother tongue.
Multilingual employees are able to attract more bilingual clients allowing you to grow your business globally by tapping into foreign markets.
Multilingual sales staff, customer service and marketing experts can reach out to new customers more effectively if they are speaking in the same language as potential clients. Continue reading
“The UK’s education system is failing to produce enough people with foreign-language skills to meet a growing need from business,” according to the CBI.
This may be why we have recently been inundated with requests for language courses for staff and managers in companies across Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. The number of international companies and importers is growing in this region and businesses seem to be recognising that investing in developing employees’ language skills is a wise decision that will bring long-term benefits. We are finding that the most popular languages are Spanish, French and German, with Mandarin becoming increasingly in demand. Continue reading