Les besoins des entreprises en compétences linguistiques

Abstract

What foreign or second language skills do employers need? This apparently straightforward question proves difficult to answer, for conceptual as well as empirical reasons. This short paper begins with an overview of the issue, showing that qualitative research on language use at work, though necessary, is not sufficient to understand the processes at hand. The paper then turns to the more or less “optimal” character of language practices, before presenting survey data indicating that on the Swiss labour market, companies appear to underestimate, or possibly to deliberately understate, the extent of their needs for foreign language skills.