DESPITE the widespread encouragement for students to acquire modern languages over the past few years jobs in Europe involving language skills were not that plentiful until recently.
However, the whole languages thing has come together now, and one of the biggest expansion areas for jobs is in teleservices. This takes advantage of the revolution in telecommunications, using it to centralise companies' services for different countries in Ireland.
For example, American Air-lines is, from this month, operating all its European bookings from Dublin. Thus people booking a seat in Germany or Holland will be connected to a central booking service in Dublin. UPS, the biggest freight courier in the world, has established a centre in Tallaght and intends to recruit up to 1,000 people to operate its service over the telephone and computer lines through different languages. Various multi-national hotel groups are also basing their booking services in Dublin
According to the Industrial Development Authority's (IDA), Mr Colm Donlon, there is a shortage of people with language skills.
"There is a very big demand for young people with a good practical, colloquial grasp of different languages," he says. We arc not talking about high academic qualifications here; the priority for these companies is that the person can communicate well through the language. The technical training is all carried out by the companies' themselves.
When such companies are seeking staff, he says, they often conduct the initial interviews on the telephone - in the foreign language they are seeking. So, you could find yourself undergoing a job interview through German on telephone!
TELESALES: Quite a number of the jobs involving foreign Ianguage skills involved telephone sales. Thus companies like Gateway 2000, making home computers in Ireland, employs around 400 people selling their computers to customers all over Europe.
People responding to a telephone number in a magazine advertisement in Germany, for example, are connected through to Dublin where they are answered by someone in German - whose job is to explain the various computer options available and try to effect a sale. Several other computer companies employ people in the same line of work.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES: Computer and software companies like Microsoft provide technical back-up and advisory services to customers all over Europe on the telephone - again through foreign languages. What is called `localisation' of software also provides jobs for those with language skills; this involves re-writing software or computer instructions in the local languages.
TOURISM AND TRAVEL: There is quite an expansion in tourism. There are not huge numbers of jobs involved, and often they are at fairly junior level, but certainly there is an increase in jobs.
MARKETING/BUSINESS:
There is an increasing demand for people in marketing/export and in business generally who have language skills. Points for business/language courses tend to be high, but it is often possible to take a language on the side as a minor option with a mainstream business course. Check with the colleges.
TECHNOLOGY: Employers and college careers offices agree that a language is a great asset to graduates of engineering and other technological courses. Most colleges offer facilities for students of these courses to acquire language skills. This is worth taking into account when choosing a place. German seems very popular for engineering students.
WHICH COURSE: Most jobs involving language skills are not in the interpreting/translation areas. As you can see from above they involve sales, marketing ticketing, or technical services. Consequently, courses providing dual skills are very useful.
The language/computing degrees, for example, are very attractive, and both degrees and diplomas providing language/business skills are justifiably very popular. DCU has both physics and chemistry on offer with either German or French, which is also an interesting combination.
When choosing a course remember practical, colloquial language skills are required. Thus an applied languages or languages/business course such as those at DCU or the DIT Kevin Street may be a good choice.
Language degrees in the traditional universities tend to be pretty academic and fairly dominated by literature. Yet, provided you spend time working abroad on holidays polishing your colloquial language skills, these degrees can also be useful as, according to the IDA, most companies provide the technical training themselves.
American Airlines has just flown 100 new recruits out to the
US for training, for example.
DCU is very specialised in applied languages. Graduates from its applied languages and from its international marketing/languages degrees are doing very well. Students on these courses spend a year abroad, and this appears to be a big advantage.
PLC COURSES: Many of the jobs involving languages do not require a very high level of other skills. The IDA points out, that companies are recruiting, people who have done PLC Ianguage-based courses or people who have simply acquired Ianguage skills by spending some time abroad. PLC courses do not Feature on the CAO/CAS form and students with an interest in languages and more modest academic abilities would be well advised to get information on PLC, courses from their school guidance counsellor.
WHICH LANGUAGE: The biggest demand, according to the IDA, is for German, French, Italian and Dutch. DCU and UL have Japanese on offer and undoubtedly this is a big growth area. Trinity is the only place with Russian, another growth market.
French is the language in most plentiful supply so it follows that qualifications in the other Ianguages will have a greater rarity value.
Trinity is the only place with Dutch on offer (through Germanic studies), and you can also take Danish, Swedish and eventually Norwegian also through this route.
It is important to remember that the emphasis is on a thorough and practical command of the language. The shortage of people with these skills is so great, according to the IDA's Mr Colm Donlon, chat the IDA is working with FAS with a view to setting up some crash courses. So it might be worth keeping in touch with the local FAS office as well.