Thirty years on, Margaret Thatcher’s education policies have created a shortage of skills in the EU institutions, which are struggling to recruit English-language interpreters and translators. The UK’s House of Lords has called on the government to address Britain’s “monoglot culture” by re-instating compulsory language classes in schools.<\/p>\n
“For years, we’ve been having great difficulty recruiting English people,” said Miguel Angel Martinez, a Spanish deputy in charge of the European Parliament’s multilingualism policy.<\/p>\n
The EU Assembly was struggling to recruit native English speakers for its interpretation and translation services, he told EurActiv in an interview.<\/p>\n
The issue has also been raised by the European Commission, which warned in 2009 that EU institutions were likely to face an acute shortage of English-language interpreters by 2015, when the current generation of officials retire.<\/p>\n
Martinez said the skills shortage was “due to the fact that language teaching has been removed [from school curricula] during the days of Ms Thatcher because the British thought they would no longer need it.”<\/p>\n
As a result, most young people of 25-30 years of age speak English only, Martinez said, which creates problems for the Parliament’s interpretation and translation services.<\/p>\n
Language learning, he stressed, should again become a priority for Britain.<\/p>\n
Lords call for making language learning compulsory Britain’s poor language skills are not only an issue for officials in Brussels-based EU institutions.<\/p>\n
The UK House of Lords has recently woken up to what it describes as a “monoglot culture” which prevents British students from participating in foreign exchange programmes such as the Erasmus scheme.<\/p>\n
“Making language learning compulsory in both primary and secondary school would be one way of increasing the UK’s participation” in Erasmus, the Lords said in a report published on 22 March.<\/p>\n
If nothing is done to promote language learning, “the UK’s future participation in mobility programmes, such as the EU’s Erasmus scheme, cannot be assured,” they warned.<\/p>\n
The Lords report was part of a broader inquiry into the EU’s role in modernising higher education in Europe.<\/p>\n
For more information, please visit: https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/culture\/parliament-struggles-recruit-english-language-interpreters-news-512000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thirty years on, Margaret Thatcher’s education policies have created a shortage of skills in the EU institutions, which are struggling to recruit English-language interpreters and translators. The UK’s House of Lords has called on the government to address Britain’s “monoglot culture” by re-instating compulsory language classes in schools. “For years, we’ve been having great difficulty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n