Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2012, and its description of foreign language teaching in Spanish primary education reflects the curriculum as it stood in 2012.
In Spain, foreign language learning begins in primary school, with six-year-olds, when a second language becomes part of the curriculum. By the fifth year of primary school, a second foreign language appears among the requirements set by the Ministry of Education for the youngest members of the family. And courses taught in a bilingual format are becoming more widespread every day.
This clearly shows how important language skills are in today’s society for the new generations. From this perspective, languages are an essential part of every candidate’s CV. The need for languages in different jobs is a separate question.
When languages are required in the professional profile
For jobs such as hotel receptionist, tour guide or other work involving contact with the outside world, one or more languages are part of the initial requirements to take part in the selection tests.
In this case, depending on each position, the language requirement will vary according to the work to be done, and the qualifications obtained will be assessed and must be certified.
In many cases, written, spoken or reading skills will be required to different degrees, and secondary selection tests will be carried out to check candidates’ command of the languages.
Certain language certificates, courses and qualifications will set one candidate apart from another and can be grounds for exclusion from certain positions, since each professional profile will demand a specific level of language proficiency.
When languages are not required in the professional profile
As we have said in previous articles, when candidates for a position are on an equal footing, we have to look for distinguishing traits.
Language skills are another distinguishing trait between two candidates with the same characteristics. Depending on the language qualification obtained, they reveal personal traits of the candidate: restless, eager to learn, open to broad career horizons and so on. So, given two equal candidates, a person with language skills stands out over one who only shows the essential characteristics for the job.
Languages imply a broader culture, and between equal people in the same position, the balance between an employee’s culture and productivity rises proportionally.
All this applies regardless of whether or not the job we are applying for requires languages.
They become a distinguishing trait among the candidate’s skills.
Featured image: Hovallef, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
