Steve Shacklock gives graduates advice on what to do if they've had a period of unemployment: http://www.nxtbook.com/gp/gp/grad91/#/6

Ever wondered about how you can demonstrate your language ability to potential employers - or how to test language ability before agreeing to interview someone. A new service from language jobs board multilingualvacancies.com may have the answer. They have developed video CVs, a system for candidates to demonstrate first hand their multi-lingual abilities to camera. The application is simple to use with candidates being prompted by a link at the end of the process after uploading their details. They then have as many opportunities as they like to record themselves and exhibit those all important skills online. It presents the ideal opportunity to differentiate themselves from other candidates and demonstrate their unique capabilities directly to an employer.

The UK is not known for its great linguistic ability, with the majority of the population’s foreign language skills limited to “bonjour” or “una cerveza por favor”. But a school in England is facing the opposite problem – its pupils speak 26 different languages! The staff have been teaching the young children English and learning the basics of the other languages spoken, which range from Spanish to Mandarin. However they have also been using Makato, a form of sign language, so that they can communicate with all of the pupils at once. At Euro London, we’re trying to encourage more pupils to study languages - and show then the range of careers available to them when using a language - by being part of the Business Language Champions Scheme. We are also partenring with CILT as sponsors of the Buisness Language Prize in the European Awards for Languages

Translation by machine may have come a long way but even today the most powerful computers cannot guarantee a perfect interpretation of documents. All road signs in Wales need to be bi-lingual and when Swansea Council emailed its in house translation service asking for “No entry for heavy goods vehicles, residential site only” to be translated into Welsh, their response was gratefully received and put to use. However some knowledge of Welsh, or someone who could check the translation, would have been useful. When the sign was put up, it took a local Welsh speaker to point out that the sign actually gave an out of office auto reply which said "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated." If you think its time to replace your web translation tool with the human version then Euro London has a range of multi-lingual office support staff available.

As UK companies look to overseas markets to maximise on business during the downturn, there has been a boost in demand for more exotic language skills, especially within the finance and sales sectors. That’s according to a new hiring trends report from multilingual recruitment consultancy Euro London Appointments. Dutch, German, Japanese and Russian remain popular languages within finance, but more generally there has been increased demand for Arabic, Gujerati, Polish, Czech, Cantonese and Korean as companies look to develop in new and alternative markets. Although finance and banking recruitment, particularly within hedge funds and trading, has been badly affected by the economic problems, the report shows that demand in areas such as risk and compliance and relationship management has grown as these aspects of finance become increasingly important. Demand for experienced candidates in digital media has also increased, as has requests for multilingual sales staff, as organisations look for ways to boost sales both at home and abroad. The online gaming sector continues to boom and is seeing continuing demand for linguists too. In the North West of the UK particularly, companies are facing a lack of IT and engineering professionals with language ability, mostly driven by a drop in the number of foreign nationals coming here. “With the economic picture and the recruitment market varying so much across the globe, organisations in the UK are realising the importance of maximising on relationships with their customers overseas” comments Steve Shacklock from Euro London. “This is not only in Europe but increasingly across Asia too, making language ability an even more valuable skill than ever. It’s reassuring to see that despite the doom and gloom that we hear about the jobs market, that there is still demand out there for skilled and experienced candidates.” The report highlighted similar market trends across Europe, with France seeing an increased demand for sales professionals and the online sector also expanding in Germany. Although their financial markets have been substantially affected, Luxembourg and Switzerland are still seeing demand for finance professionals, with Luxembourg seeing growth in accountancy and Switzerland experiencing a continued demand for risk and tax specialists. Euro London’s Spring 2009 hiring trends report covers the job markets in the UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and France.

 Despite the almost daily diet of employment doom and gloom dished up by the media, the phenomenal recent growth in the online gaming and betting sector means that, unlike most other sectors of employment, there is still very much a war for talent and nowhere is this more evident than in the online affiliate marketing arena .  The regulatory framework is changing and with more and more countries having legalised online gambling - and the number of internet users around the world continuing to grow, the sector has an ever expanding global customer base. Only recently Italy for example reported that online gambling revenues between January and April had increased by over 10% when compared with the same period last year. A quick look at the Sunday Times Rich List gives a good indication of just how successful this sector is - even in a downturn Founders of Party Poker, husband and wife team Ruth Parasol and Russ De Leon, for example, are worth something around £700 Million while another husband and wife team, this time Peter and Denise Coates - the owners of Bet 365 have a mere £400 Million - up £100 million from the previous year. With such explosive global growth, and the subsequent drive to secure growing market and revenue share, there has been a real surge in demand for affiliate marketing specialists who not only have the ability to manage an organisation’s affiliate programme, but who are also fluent in more than one language.  Affiliate programmes are absolutely key to online gaming and betting organisations as they help each other to build revenue and profits but a programme is not enough without a team to manage the expectations and outcomes of what could be a very disparate and diverse group of people and organisations. These are roles with very specific skill sets.  Not only will affiliate managers need to report on channel activity but they also need to be constantly prospecting and closing new partnerships. The sector may be growing but it is also fiercely competitive and the affiliate marketing programme is absolutely key to business growth.  Additionally, we are not just talking about a domestic market.  The globalisation of the sector means that gaming organisations are spreading their focus far more internationally. Cross border marketing campaigns need cross border affiliate programmes and so these specialists need not only advanced foreign language skills but also an appreciation of different business cultures.  We are handling an increasing number of vacancies in the iGaming sector - and I’d say the requirement has increased at least five fold since this time last year.  Most of the roles are London based with some in major gaming hubs such as Malta and Gibraltar and the main languages in demand tend to be Italian, French, Spanish, Hungarian and Flemish. Dutch is also in high demand but is notoriously difficult to source. Multilingualvacancies.com, Euro London's job board partner has also seen a significant increase in the iGaming sector. "We have been approached by more and more advertisers who are now specialising in the iGaming sector," states Associate Director Miranda Reid "and have found that where previously; the concentration was in the localisation/QA tester areas, we are now advertising a wider range of roles such as customer service reps, community managers and so on." Increasingly, clients are looking for an eclectic mix of skills which will include at least two languages (one of which will usually be English as many of the roles are London based).  Additionally candidates will typically need to be steeped in online marketing knowledge and have a good working knowledge of the gaming and betting sector - whether that be poker; sports or other casino products. They will also need affiliate marketing knowledge and the skills to not only manage existing programmes but also to develop new ones and measure the success of each. Not stopping there they will also probably need experience of specific internet software products such as Dreamweaver.  However, these people are not easy to find.  First, the experience needed is often so specific that the only way to source the talent required is to target ‘passive candidates’ i.e. those who may not necessarily be looking for a move - but who may consider moving should the opportunity arise. Consequently it’s important for employers to remember that they are ‘selling’ as well as ‘buying’ as often the best candidates will need to be tempted. Salary levels, because of the shortage of good people are obviously bucking the economic trend.  Affiliate marketers with 1-2 years experience could be looking at £30K + while more senior candidates can command up to £50K.  However, it is important to appreciate that money isn’t the only motivator and it is worth employers partnering with a recruiter who knows both the industry - and the candidates.  This way the employer can be briefed on what it is that will really motivate the candidate, ‘press the right buttons’ and tempt someone to join.       Secondly, in the UK, a mix of marketing, online expertise and language ability is very difficult to achieve - and that may mean casting the net outside domestic borders - or targeting foreign nationals in the UK.  It’s a sad but true fact that there is a dearth of UK nationals who speak a foreign language fluently, and certainly less than foreign nationals who speak English fluently mainly because UK nationals tend only to speak another language if they have chosen to study it.  But if you take a landlocked country like Luxembourg for example, you will find individuals who will speak three or four languages including English - it’s just part of their culture. With the betting and online gaming sector continuing to evolve and the regulatory framework opening up the sector to more countries all the time, we are likely to see even further international growth. Sourcing the best multilingual marketing talent is consequently likely to be the key differentiator in terms of securing future competitive advantage in this multi billion pound sector.

While it's ususally the Brits who are chastised for their lack of language ablity, it seems that our friends accross the pond are even worse.  According to the National Council for Languages and International Studies in Washington, only 44% of American high school students are enrolled in foreign language classes, only 31% of elementary schools even offer foreign languages and less than 8% of US undergraduates study a foreign language. What's even more startling is that according to the 2000 census, only 9% of Americans can speak a foreign language compared with 50% of Europeans. Against the backdrop of a global marketplace, it seems that the UK and US have a lot of work to do!

Welcome to Euro London's brand new blog. We'll be posting here about employment trends, language stories, research we've undertaken and similar things you'll hopefully find interesting - watch this space!