The British Academy has joined forces with the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Education and Employers Taskforce and leading businesses to steer a major research programme designed to rescue the country from ¡°a colourless monoglot future¡±.

Born Global: Rethinking Language Policy for 21st Century Britain, which will run until July 2015, is designed to bridge the yawning gap between ¡°years of declining capability in language competence in education¡± and ¡°recurrent reports of high levels of employer demand for language skills¡±.

It hopes to ¡°inform government language policy development, the current national curriculum review for England and future developments in higher education language curricula and assessment¡±.

¡®Co-owners¡¯ of education

At the university level, the numbers studying languages have been falling for years.

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Ucas figures for ¡°placed applicants by subject group¡± show a decline of close to 11?per cent for European languages between 2009 and 2013 (from 4,130 to 3,680) and around 16.5?per cent for non-European languages (from 1,340 to 1,120).

Richard Hardie, non-executive chair of financial services firm UBS, is chair of the Born Global steering group.

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Launching the project at the company¡¯s London headquarters on 23?September, he spoke of ¡°the need?to fix the language supply chain?into education¡± and for employers to become ¡°co-owners of?the educational curriculum¡±.

The data now being gathered by Born Global should certainly help ¡°rescue future generations from a colourless monoglot future¡±, he added.

Principal researcher Bernardette Holmes, a programme director at the University of Cambridge¡¯s Language Centre, noted that the British language deficit meant that UK employers often looked overseas when recruiting vital staff.

The scholar asked: ¡°Are our young people only fit for lower-grade jobs?¡±

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With the British Chambers of Commerce wanting to ¡°ensure that the next generation of business owners are ¡®born global¡¯¡±, it was time ¡°to make the rhetoric count¡± through ¡°a research-informed strategy¡±, she argued.

Compare and contrast

Born Global will consult with ¡°a?representative sample of employers over a two-year period¡± in order to ¡°elaborate a conceptual framework to map language competence, identifying the range of knowledge, skills and understanding required to function effectively from administrative to executive levels¡±, according to an information pack on the project.

It will also follow a sample of young people with language qualifications at GCSE level, A level and university, and ¡°compare their employment outcomes in areas such?as earnings and employment periods¡± with people from similar backgrounds and attainment who lack such qualifications.

matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com