Speaking a foreign language is now as important to job-hunting graduates as maths and IT skills, the National Centre for Languages (CILT) has claimed.
Communications director Teresa Tinsley said graduates without a second language could be doing untold damage to their prospects of securing a good job in today's "global village".
"It is going to be much more important to have a second language in the future than it has been in the past," she said.
"There's going to be competition for jobs, competition from English speaking people. Languages have as much importance as maths, science and ICT. It's about understanding the wider world around you and being a rounded person as well."
Recent CILT research has shown that Mandarin, Cantonese and Russian were of particular value to employers in the business world.
