LANGUAGES IN CORPORATE QUALITY WORKSHOP ECML, Graz

21 - 22 November 2013

Structured interview with enterprises on current practice in language assessment in the business

communityPresentation of the survey

Lusine Fljyan, Yerevan State Linguistic University “Brusov“, Yerevan, AR

The demand for foreign languages and communication skills is steadily rising on the European labour market. In order to reduce the gap between offer and demand of the language skills we need to understand how language competence can be demonstrated.

For different jobs various language skills/competences are required, and the employers should be aware of the different options that will help them to assess the language skills of the staff.

The goals of this survey were to:The goals of this survey were to:•Better understand the ways in which the business sector assesses and promotes employees’ language skills;

•Raise awareness among enterprises of the relevance of informal and non-formal language learning outcomes and the assessment thereof.

•Make language competence a key aspect of corporate quality

• WHY HAVE WE CHOSEN STRUCTURED WHY HAVE WE CHOSEN STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS IN OUR RESEARCH?INTERVIEWS IN OUR RESEARCH?

1. To gather significant and revealing information on language assessment;

2. To make interesting comparisons through asking similar questions.

• Preparation of the draft: second expert meeting (13-14 September 2012)

• Guided interviews• Questionnaire available in EN, FR, DE• Telephone/Skype or face-to-face interviews• Audio-recording when possible• Interviews were approved by the respective interviewees • Confidentiality issue • Identification of correspondents

• 30 private companies (SMEs, big companies)• Sectors: agro-industry, energy, manufacturing, construction,

communication, consultancy, legal and financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail, tourism and trade

• HR departments/managers, people involved in recruitment• Languages used: AR, RU, IT, FR, DE, EN

Countries AR BE CA EN DE FR IR IT LU RU

Number of interviews

2 1 1 1 5 4 5 5 1 5