New survey on foreign languages.
One-in-five English exporters have no staff with foreign language skills, and almost a third have no system to handle telephone enquiries in a foreign language, according to a new survey.
The research into export strategies has been carried out by the Small Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Development (SEED) Centre, at Luton Business School, to coincide with the launch of a multi-million pound European Union-funded programme to teach foreign languages and business culture skills. The Language and Culture for Business (LCB) programme, which has national headquarters at the University of Luton, is being launched at five centres across the country. It will offer free courses in French, German and Spanish.