Career Prospects in Modern Languages

Learning Languages Pays

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has just published its Review of Modern Foreign Languages provision in higher education in England. According to this review, 36% of all companies recruit employees specifically for their language skills; and the mean salary of language graduates 3.5 years after graduation is £26,823, the 4th highest mean salary of all subjects – after Medicine, Pharmacy and Pharmacology, and Architecture, Building and Planning.

Skills Acquired

Our courses in the Department of Language and Linguistics are designed to develop employability skills such as the following:

Communication skills (written and spoken)
Presentation skills (e.g. PowerPoint, web design)
Problem-solving skills (analysing problems, devising and evaluating solutions)
Negotiation skills (reasoning and persuasion
Planning and management skills (planning and managing a project, and completing it on time
Teamwork, leadership and collaboration skills (including experience of leading and being led by others)
ICT skills (including awareness of emerging technologies)
Self-reliance, self-reflection, self-motivation and self-confidence
Interpersonal skills (engaging with others to establish rapport)

What Do Modern Languages Graduates Do?

A recent What Do Graduates Do? survey showed Modern Languages graduates entering the following professions:

26.4% took up administrative work (e.g. as a personal assistant, travel consultant, bilingual secretary, administrative officer etc.)
16.3% went into commercial, industrial or public sector management (e.g. as a conference organiser, leisure manager, recruitment consultant, retail manager, restaurant manager)
10.7% went into marketing, sales, PR and advertising (e.g. as an advertising accounts manager, export sales executive, marketing manager, public relations consultant)
9.6% went into business and finance (e.g. as a business analyst, investment banker, trainee chartered accountant)
7.5% went into retail work (e.g. as a sales manager)
7.1% went into media or publishing work (e.g. as a TV researcher, publishing assistant, internet journalist)

Other careers taken up by Modern Languages graduates included information technology, teaching, healthcare, police work, the armed forces… and so on. About a fifth of Modern Languages graduates went into further study or training (e.g. in Translation Studies, International Relations, Law, Film-Making, Journalism).

See also: What can I do with a Modern Languages degree? (university careers pages)

The University of Essex has an excellent Careers Advisory Service which will be pleased to advise you on your career prospects. Alternatively you can view the department's own careers advice page.

Brochure & Enquiries

For more information and a brochure, e-mail: laladms@essex.ac.uk or telephone: +44 (0)1206 872201.