§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their policy towards the foreign language speaking ability of the British people as a global asset. [HL4775]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland)We are planning to publish our national languages strategy towards the end of November this year. It will set out our agenda for the next decade in support of the transformation of our nation's capability in languages.
Language skills improve an individual's employment prospects and a company's economic competitiveness. Such skills help our people to get better and more interesting jobs and our country to prosper in the global economy.
§ Lord Williams of Elvelasked Her Majesty's Government:
On what date the proposed strategy for foreign language teaching will be published; whether it will be in the form of a White Paper; and, if not, in what form it will be published. [HL5976]
§ Baroness Ashton of UphollandWe are planning to publish the national languages strategy towards the end of November this year. We are currently finalising the details for publication and expect to be in a position to confirm the date very soon. The strategy will not be published in the form of a White Paper or other command paper. It will be in the form of a policy paper setting out our agenda for the next decade in support of the tranformation of our nation's capability in languages.
Our Language Learning document, published in February this year, set out the department's aspirations for language learning and teaching. It also set out the areas in which we were developing 105WA proposals and asked key stakeholders to contribute their views. The national languages strategy has been informed by that process and by the work of the Languages National Steering Group.