The lack of English knowledge reduces the competitiveness of Catalan companies, as they lose opportunities in their internationalization process. In addition, they must bear the extra costs derived from internal training plans that they launch to increase the language skills of their employees, an expense that their global competitors do not usually have to assume. "In Catalan society there is a lack of motivation to have better linguistic skills that translate into better professional development; this lack of interest is surprising," laments David Marín, vice president of FemCat and the only candidate to relieve Elena Massot at the head of the foundation's presidency next January.
According to Massot, encouraging multilingualism in companies and making knowledge of foreign languages a priority is an urgent issue and she asks that this issue "be part of the public debate" because "we will not be able to improve competitiveness if we are not competent in languages." "Multilingualism is an emerging value in the face of globalization, it is necessary to raise the level of languages of our human capital because it is key for the internationalization of companies and for better professional insertion," considers Massot. According to the businesswoman, the Generalitat "must increase the budgetary allocation" for language teaching at all educational levels and also asks for "more transparency to really know what level of English students have."
"Languages must be a country objective," emphasizes Massot, who considers "deplorable" the Government's decision to withdraw this year the requirement to accredit a B2 level ---equivalent to the First Certificate--- of a foreign language to obtain a university degree. The president of FemCat believes that greater investment of public resources to promote language knowledge is a priority to prevent these skills "from being a privilege of people who have more resources" and can afford private English classes or stays abroad.
"Boosting foreign languages does not mean abandoning Catalan, on the contrary; bilingual people find it easier to acquire a third language," highlights FemCat. In Marín's opinion, receiving a trilingual education from an early age "would be ideal," although she points out that it is not FemCat's role to make concrete proposals on what the educational model should be. "What we do think is that the Administration can do more" and that the level of English taught in schools "should be higher." "Clearly, it's a matter of hours, the current ones are not enough," reflect the leaders of FemCat, who ask that this issue can be discussed openly "with rationality" and without politicizing it.
An instrument to measure and make decisions
To join efforts and contribute to improving this problem, FemCat has created the Language Observatory, a model of indicators whose objective is to serve as a control and guide on the degree of knowledge of foreign languages in Catalonia. "After two years of work, we have realized that the level of languages is not well measured and that there are no tools available to allow us to measure their evolution, which is why we want to provide society with a rigorous analysis instrument that allows objective and constructive decisions to be made," highlights the foundation, which has the support of the employers' associations Foment del Treball and Cecot and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce.
According to the Ministry of Education, 100% of primary and ESO students study a first foreign language, but the percentage drops to 36% in intermediate vocational training and 15% in higher vocational training. "Knowledge must be improved at all educational levels, because the demand for languages is transversal in all jobs," says FemCat, adding that vocational training "is the great forgotten" and that there is no study on the level of languages.
We want to provide society with a rigorous analysis instrument that allows objective and constructive decisions to be madeThe only official data available are those corresponding to the basic skills tests for 4th year of ESO and the PAU for university access. In the first case, the average score of students in English was 69.3 out of 100 in 2015, a figure that has improved very slightly in 2021, with 70.5 out of 100. Regarding the PAU, the average grade in English was 7.10 out of 10 in 2015 and 7.23 in 2021. According to Idescat, only 33.9% of the adult Catalan population has knowledge of English. This language, with data from Adecco, is the most requested in job offers (73%), followed by French (19%) and German (11%).
According to Randstad, 26% of job offers require knowledge of a foreign language, but FemCat believes that the real figure is much higher because "many job offers give up asking for English because they already know that if they put this condition, they won't find anyone."
With a hundred business and executive partners, FemCat is a foundation that works to improve Catalonia's competitiveness and generate initiatives that help boost its economic, productive, and social fabric. It carries out different programs to encourage entrepreneurial initiative, project Catalonia to the world, and analyze success stories and international best practices applicable to Catalonia. The programs Escola i Empresa and Parlament i Empresa are two of its most outstanding actions, along with benchmarking trips. In the first case, FemCat partners visit schools to highlight the figure of entrepreneurs and the role of business among students, while the second program consists of bringing deputies closer to companies so that they better understand their reality.