Language and employability - Lemp Project
As a partner of the LEMP (Language and employability) Project, Céreq's Associated Centre of Dijon has conducted a research on language skills requirements in French online job offers.
Although online job offers are only part of the total number of employment opportunities, they shed light on recent labour market developments and employer expectations on human resources. They provide useful information on selection criteria, terms of employment and required skills at a given time. Language proficiency requirements are analysed on the same level as education or work experience. It draws on results of several educational economics research showing the significance of both national and foreign language skills in professional careers (Grin, 2003; Chiswick, 2003).
1500 job offers collected from Pôle Emploi (French public employment agency) and APEC (Agency for the employment of managers in France) websites have been examined.
Apart from the number of offers stating skills in at least one language as a selection criterion, the research aimed at investigating which language was desired or required, whether several languages were required, proficiency level, links between language skills and other criteria, particularly education, pay and terms of employment. To this end, over 1500 job offers were collected at the time of their release between May and June 2014 from two websites (Pôle Emploi and APEC). This first phase was complemented by a qualitative survey on employers' linguistic needs.
The research final results provide detailed information on the importance of language skills in professional careers. A report including the employers qualitative survey (800 responses and interviews) and the findings of the job offers study was presented during the final conference at the CIEP in June 2015, in addition to a bibliography and video stories.
Lemp project on CIEP website (in French)
