Catalan businessmen ask to demand B2 English from university students again to graduate

  • Femcat leads a business platform with Foment, Pimec and the Chamber to demand greater public investment in the teaching of foreign languages

Catalan businessmen require the Govern to reinstate the obligation that university students and others higher grades finish it with a certificate of English B2. This has been stated this Wednesday by the main business organizations in the country, led by the lobi Femcat and with the participation of Foment, Pimec and the Chamber of Commerce. Employers demand from the Administration a greater investment in foreign languages ​​throughout the training cycle and with special emphasis on professional training (FP), which they have crossed out as the “great forgotten” when it comes to languages. “For the business world it is essential to improve in this area to be able to compete in a globalized world”, declared the president of Femcat, Elena Massot. “It is a lever for the internationalization of companies and must be a country objective”, he added.

In 2014, the Government of the then ‘president’ Artur Mas approved the obligation for university students to have an accredited B2 level in order to graduate. However, the measure was never implemented, as the centers pressed to dilute it due to the high number of students who finished their credits but did not have any foreign language certificate. This year the Government reformulated the regulations and now leaves it in the hands of the centers how to accredit knowledge of a foreign language in order to finish the degree.

More resources for language teaching and more demands on current courses. This has been the double demand that the business community has placed on Tuesday. “The current linguistic competences of the approved student in English do not guarantee being able to work in English”, lamented the head of the Femcat language observatory, David marin. Also greater traceability of what has been learned, that is, that the public education system enables a series of indicators to be able to more effectively accredit which languages ​​and at what level the students speak when they finish their studies.

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Although the business entities participating in this Tuesday’s act have put the accent on the administration, the data presented in their report also gives a wake-up call to the companies. In Catalunya less than 3% of workers active students carry out some type of occupational training in languages ​​every year. And it is not precisely because they already dominate English and other languages ​​common in international trade. According to Idescat data, only the 33.9% of the population With more than 15 years he defends himself in English. From the business bench they do not have a clear explanation as to why, if languages ​​are so important for the internationalization of companies, the directorates do not encourage more these training among their staff. “It costs workers to get involved,” argued Marín.

This linguistic deficit represents an “extra cost for companies”, since in order to compete internationally they must pay for the training of the worker. And those small and medium-sized companies that do not have the resources to assume this extra cost is a brake on their projection outside of Spain and Catalonia. In this sense, companies resign themselves to being more demanding in their job offers, because they fear not filling certain vacancies if they demand a lot in this regard. According to a recent report by the Chamber of Commerce, 38% of job offers for university students require proficiency in English.

Reference-www.elperiodico.com

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