Languages – your route to employment

We live in an inter-connected world defined by the free movement of products, services and people.

Ireland has become hub for global business, with a host of international companies making our cities bases for the headquarters of their communications and support networks.

Due to the multi-cultural nature of workforces and the international reach of business, language qualifications are coming to the fore in job specs from a range of different industries.

Being fluent in French, Spanish, German, or even in Mandarin and Russian, makes a person more employable today than ever before.

Many opportunities are in the area of external communications. These include jobs in the customer services industry, in call centres, in shared services and in the provision of technical support.

A company’s ability to speak to each of its consumer bases in their native language has grown increasingly important. A company with a large consumer base in South America will benefit from an employee fluent in Spanish and English, for instance.

This allows for a closer relationship with each consumer base, creating a more inclusive company image, boosting sales and providing a better all-round service.

The ability to speak to a company’s employees in various offices around the world in their native language allows for greater employee morale, better communication and the more efficient running of the company.

Employees fluent in foreign languages are also ideal candidates for team lead roles. They become the go-to information source for team members and liaise between managers and the workforce.

Added to this, the financial services sector is brimming with language job opportunities in the areas of accounts payable and accounts receivable, while bilingual financial analysts are also highly sought after.

Sinead Muldoon is the managing director at Aventuro Ireland, specialists in organising reciprocal exchanges for children aged 10 to 18 for Irish families with families in France Spain, and Germany.

“Language, culture and identity are inextricably linked. To know a language is to connect you directly to its people,” Sinead says.

“Nelson Mandela once said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.

“One language sets the limits; two languages or more makes the possibilities limitless.”

To learn more about the variety of language job opportunities on offer contact HERO Recruitment Galway on (091) 730022; Cork on (021) 2066287; Dublin on (01) 6190279. Visit www.hero.ie or find HERO Recruitment on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter

For more information on the work of Aventuro Ireland, call (087) 1238576, email info@aventuroireland.ie or visit www.aventuroireland.ie.