Training & coaching news: It’s all English to them

UK employers barely bother with language training for their staff, a YouGov survey of 2,500 employees has found.

The research, carried out by the online pollster on behalf of language training company Rosetta Stone, found 80% of those polled said they had never been given the chance to learn foreign languages at work. Only 8% of Scottish employees surveyed said they had been offered language learning by their employers.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

James Pitman, managing director at Rosetta Stone, said the findings were “shocking”. “Our survey clearly shows that UK businesses are stuck in a time warp in terms of language learning and are apathetic about the situation.”

German and French were rated by respondents as the two most important business-relevant languages, while only 2% thought it important to learn Russian. Some 9% of respondents rated Welsh as the most difficult language to learn.