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.

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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.