NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - May 20, 2014) - "Class of 2014 Faces Tough Job Market" was the title of an article published on CNN Money on May 1st. "Learn a language," not surprisingly is the advice coming from Ryan McMunn, the owner of BRIC Language Systems. What is surprising however, is how few US born graduates have taken that advice in the past. That is changing however, with a tight job market and high demand for bilingual white-collar employees in the modern internationally integrated economy.
According to a study done by the US Department of Education only about 18 percent of American adults speak a second language other than English. "There's not a better way for a student to differentiate him or herself from the other 1 million people graduating this year, than to learn a language," says McMunn. He also points out that according to CareerBuilder bilingual workers can expect to be paid between 5 and 20% more than their monolingual peers which would help those students taking on ever increasing amounts of debt.
McMunn knows from experience how important learning a second language can be to a career. Having spent 8 years living and working in China he says he "never would have been successful had he not learned Chinese." He also knows how boring learning a language can be after having taken Spanish, German, and French while growing up, all of which he failed at. "Learning from books with full chapters dedicated to watching the leaves change colors in the fall just didn't cut it for me," he says.
His advice for graduates is simple. "Obviously I'd tell students to sign up for a free trial with BRIC, and we'll get you signed up for our program," he quips. He then goes on to say, "No matter what company and program a student chooses, it has to be customizable to each person's interests." BRIC's success has been built on that foundation, gearing the courses to each student's career path. BRIC also offers summer trips to China, World Cup Portuguese courses and travel to Brazil, and an MBA level course with Shanghai Normal University starting next fall.
In a job market as tough as the one that 2014 graduates are facing, and with the increased demand for multilingual employees, study of a foreign language seems to be growing in popularity. According to a study in Forbes Insights, 71% of executives at multinational companies felt that foreign work experience was important for those on a leadership track and 80% agreed that foreign staffs perform better when their managers speak in their native language.
Jeffrey Ruth, Ph.D. Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages at East Stroudsburg University has seen the growth in demand for multilingual employees first hand. Professor Ruth had this to say about the needs of multinational organizations, "Global competencies -- business leaders want that in their hires; government and NGO's seek it; health and social service organizations recognize the need; and students across the country are responding in ever greater numbers by getting first and second majors in a language, going abroad, and landing terrific jobs with higher salaries."
About BRIC Language Systems:
BRIC Language Systems is a cutting edge language training & consulting company focused on Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. BRIC has been cited hundreds of times in media outlets, including Fox Business, CCTV America, NY Post, Huffington Post, US News & World Report, Everyday Health, Investor's Business Daily.