IF YOU THINK that the use of English has become so widespread throughout the world that the study of languages is fast becoming unnecessary, think again.
Fluency in at least one foreign language is becoming increasingly valuable in the labour market. In the business sector there is a growing realisation that if as a nation we are to compete internationally, then we should speak the languages of the people to whom we sell and from whom we buy. And of course anyone - with whatever qualifications - who wishes to embody the EU's "mobility of labour" also needs, at the very least, competency in the language of the country where he or she wishes to work.
Time was when a degree in French or German led almost inevitably to jobs in teaching, translating or interpreting. However, job prospects for language graduates have been revolutionised in recent years: a number of major overseas companies have established "call centres" in Ireland, creating a significant demand for multilingual personnel.
Over the last three years more than 30 firms have set up in Ireland, employing upwards of 3,000 people. They include the telemarketing divisions of computer makers Dell and Gateway 2000; the UPS shipping company; hotel chains Best Western and ITT Sheraton; Korean Airlines; KAO and ICT, which offer third-party bureau services, and DEC, Creative Labs and Quarterdeck which offer technical support services. These companies have been attracted to Ireland in part by the fibre-optic telecommunications service available here.
Teleservices is one of the fastest-growing sectors of business in Ireland; the IDA says it has the potential to double its employment levels by the end of the decade.
"This sector has justified the IDA's decision to target it as a priority area," the IDA's chief executive Keiran McGowan noted at the launch of the authority's annual report last June. "A momentum has been achieved which will continue as long as we can deliver the right workforce and infrastructure. Imperative to continuing the success of this business is the availability of people with language skills and of high quality telecommunication services at competitive costs," he said.
In the fields of marketing and technical support, the US company Gateway 2000, which sells PCs, is a good example of the type of company that has set up here. Gateway currently employs a staff of more than 1,100 in Ireland and expects to almost double its workforce over the next three years. The company's Dublin headquarters supplies PCs directly to the Irish market and to Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and Belgium. If, say, you're a German living in Munich and you wish to purchase a Gateway 2000 computer, you dial a toll-free local number and your call is automatically diverted to Dublin - where you're answered in German. Hence the need for foreign-language graduates.
At Gateway, over 700 people are employed in what the company calls "the customer-interface areas", which include sales, customer services and technical support. In these three divisions people with language skills sell the products, arrange for shipment and, when the goods are delivered, give technical advice on installation to customers in their own languages.
The company requires its customer-interface employees to have "near-native" fluency in languages; it does not insist on their holding degrees. However, technical-support staff are usually required to combine linguistic ability with a technical qualification.
A RECENT PROFILE of the computer industry compiled by the recruitment company Computer Staff Recruitment (CRS) shows that fewer than a quarter of call-centre companies stipulate third-level entry requirements and half of these accept certificate or diploma holders.
According to CRS's managing director, Elizabeth Neligan, "Leaving Certificate is the entry-level requirement for call centres. However, they are forced to recruit university graduates as one of the few sources of language-fluency training among Irish nationals."
Starting salaries in the sector are in line with entry-level salaries in other industries, but incomes can be boosted considerably by commission bonuses. The CRS profile shows that jobs taking hotel and airline reservations are at the lower end of the scale - a multilingual reservation agent can expect to earn a basic salary of between £11,000 and £13,500. Annual basic salaries for telesales executives - where greater language skills are required - range between £10,500 and £17,000. Add a commission bonus of up to £8,000 and you could be earning well over £20,000 per year. These pay levels are often augmented by other benefits - e.g. group VHI and life-assurance schemes.
German and French are the languages most frequently sought by call-centre employers, followed by Italian, Spanish and the Scandinavian languages, according to CRS.
The increasing inclusion of foreign-language components in business and marketing courses reflects growing employer demands - particularly among exporting companies - for multilingual personnel. Increasingly companies are saying that they want people with language skills," says Gerry O'Brien, manager of the Irish Trade Board's graduate programme.
Each year, 20 marketing or business graduates are recruited on to the ITB's one-year programme and are sent to work in the board's offices throughout Europe and Ireland. Recruits are expected to be commercially fluent in the language of the country to which they are sent.
However, a language degree alone is insufficient to enable a graduate to gain a foothold in the business community, O'Brien says. "If people want a career in business, they need more than a language degree and should combine it with a postgraduate diploma in business studies," he advises.
