ALMOST 1,000 young people from outside Ireland are employed in the telemarketing sector here because local job seekers can't speak continental languages, according to IBEC.
Companies are "screaming" for people with fluency in foreign languages, a spokeswoman for IBEC, the employers' organisation, said. Nationals of other EU states can "walk in" to a job here because of a lack of language skills in areas such as overseas marketing and telemarketing.
According to the IDA, telemarketing is the fastest growing industry in this country. Virtually non existent five years ago, it now employs 2,500 people. This is expected to double by the end of the decade. Major multinationals, such as UPS, Hertz, Gateway 2000, American Airlines and IBM, have set up here or are about to do so.
To counteract this skills shortage, IBEC announced yesterday the extension of its graduate European Orientation Programme to young people who are unemployed. Some 75 young people from Dublin and Louth are being recruited for a one year programme, called the European Experience Programme, involving language tuition in Ireland and on the Continent, and work experience abroad.
All participants are provided with air tickets to and from the Continent. Their tuition, lodging and partial board is paid for, and they receive an additional allowance of £70 a week. Once they finish the language course and move into employment, an allowance of £400 is paid towards the cost of settling into new accommodation. The total cost to the sponsor agencies is £5,000.
The scheme involves six week tuition in either German, French, Italian or Spanish, as well as computer skills training in Dublin.
Participants then spend 12 weeks in a continental location attending language classes and familiarising themselves with the history and culture of the host country.
Participants are next expected to organise a period of work experience abroad, during which it is hoped they will become fluent in their chosen language.
The programme, which is backed by FAS, the Minister for Social Welfare and local development partnerships, is open to people aged between 18 and 28. The closing date for the programme, which begins early next month, is October 8th. More information is available from the European Orientation Programme, telephone (01) 6601717.
The extension of the programme to unemployed people follows the success of a pilot project in Waterford involving 27 local people earlier this year.
More than 700 graduates have trained abroad on the orientation programme since it was set up 15 years ago. IBEC says the scheme, which aimed to counteract the lack of language skills among Irish business people, has been "phenomenally successful".
The huge expansion in telemarketing has made the lack of language skills even more apparent. However, graduates have tended to spurn work in the sector, and FAS has recommended the creation of a non graduate workforce with high linguistic skills.
