The Manchester city region has a strong, well balanced workforce with multilingual speakers from a wide range of sources, including over 5,000 foreign language students within an hours drive of the city, some 26,000 international students and 50,000 foreign professionals in the North West region.
[Source: HESA 2005 & Annual Population Survey 2006 & 2001 Census, ONS]
Manchester Airport is key to driving the international accessibility of the city region, which continuously attracts multinational interest from both foreign companies and citizens. Currently, over 2000 foreign owned companies have operations based in the city region including a growing number of pan-European customer contact centres, signifying Manchester’s capacity to supply skilled linguists.
Source: HESA Student Record 2003 , Annual Population Survey 2006 and Census 2001, ONS
A growing population of students from outside the UK adds value to employers’ access to cultural and international markets. The rich presence of international students in Manchester’s four universities is recognised as a skilful and flexible resource, with many choosing to remain in the city region after study – 48% of The University of Manchester graduates alone embark on their careers within the city region.
Universities, Further Education colleges and independent language schools in the city region offer unparalleled access to a number of professional language qualifications.
To find out more information about Manchester’s multilingual workforce please contact MIDAS.
