Leading businessman Roland Rudd has launched a campaign calling on the business community to recognise the importance of language skills to the economy and employment.

The Languages Work Pledge is an online nationwide campaign being run by CILT, the National Centre for Languages. Businesses are being asked to sign up in order to highlight the benefits of language learning and encourage support for languages from businesses, education and the government.

Launching the Campaign, Roland Rudd, the founder of Finsbury, a leading global financial communications group, said:  ““British businesses will not remain competitive unless we can communicate effectively and interact with customers and partners around the world. The ability to speak a foreign language enriches us as individuals and brings huge commercial benefits to employers. We can not afford to be complacent, such skills are vital to the continued success of British business and the United Kingdom’s influence on the world stage.”

Research has shown that the UK is losing its place in the global marketplace due to its lack of language skills and that rebalancing the UK’s trade with non English speaking countries could add £21 billion per year to UK GDP^1.  It’s also been shown that businesses that have an international communications strategy to help overcome language and cultural challenges achieve on average 45% more sales².

Michelle Brassell, CILT’s Employment Engagement Adviser, said:  “Signing the Languages Work Pledge is a simple and practical way to ensure that the importance of languages and intercultural skills to business in the UK is kept at the forefront of the Government’s agenda”.

To sign the Languages Work Pledge go to http://pledge.languageswork.org.uk/

For further information contact:
Erika Cook or William Attfield at CILT
erika.cook@cilt.org.uk 020 7633 3319

Press release (Word, 252KB)