Language jobs in Europe - update

Which countries in the European Union (EU) need foreign languages? That's the key question the European Commission asked in a report published on 26 February 2016.

Not surprisingly, the different countries have different needs. But the main conclusions were quite surprising. The needs are very high: about one quarter of our jobs need a good level of knowledge of a foreign language. The higher the position, the higher the need.

English is not necessarily the most needed second language. Languages spoken by neighbour countries and non-English trading partners are needed as well. Business doing international trade are more demanding for foreign language skills, as well as the manufacturing sector and in the industry.

However, public services seem not to be needing languages. Strange, since the globalisation certainly has an effect on local governments. Businesses do not seem to find foreign language skills essential for new employees, compared to other skills.

And lastly, persons speaking several languages definitely have an advantage over those who only speak one language, since it is believed export will grow if the number of multilingual persons at a company increases.

Great findings! It should encourage you to study some more languages!

Executive summary
Report
Picture's public domain

Best languages to study

Argh! Have to study a language and you have no idea which one? Tons of people are making recommendations on which one to study. Why?

"The demand for foreign languages and communication skills is steadily rising", according to loads of Ministers in the European Union.

So it's for your job. My recommendation? Just study the language you want to study. If you have no idea, let's take a look at some lists.

The Telegraph says it's German you should study. Voxy -whoever that is- says it's Mandarin. The people from Richest say it's English. However, according to Forbes, French is the language of the future. Because apparently, Africa is going to grow a lot. So learn French with this course if you want to deal with more Africans! Or check some other resources.

My opinion?  Companies look for people who already know the language, and, to my experience, aren't going to finance the study of the language you'd like to learn. So take the initiative! Go to that evening class. When you go on vacation, follow some language classes. And read a newspaper in that language.

Multilingual jobs - where to start?

So you speak a few languages, and you want to make the most out of them on the job market? Here's some websites to begin with:

Eures
Over 1 million jobs last I checked. Only for the EU and one or two other countries. They recently improved their search engine. Some countries only list jobs for foreigners, so give it a go. Maybe you have to look for a while to find your dream job, but it's certainly worth it. Trick is to find the right keyword, if you're a wordpress expert just type in 'wordpress' and select the country! There's also loads of information on working abroad.

Multilingual vacancies
Loads of jobs from all kinds. Mostly for the United Kingdom.

Top Language Jobs
1000s of jobs, very handy because you can select which industry, which country,... and so on in the search engine. If you have a good idea of what you want, this is a great website!

Multilingual careers
There's some jobs, and some search parameters. Good to check it out.

If you're looking for jobs that have something to do with the European Union, check out Eurobrussels and Euractiv, subscribe to their newsletter!

Omniglot
Has another list! Mostly for the United Kingdom but some other vacancies as well!

Of course, check the websites of the countries you want to work in!

Spotted another website? Leave a comment!