Abstract

Employment is one of the basic factors when evaluating a region’s competitiveness. Boosting employment figures will also increase individual income. However, the creation of jobs alone will not solve the problems of unemployment, as labour force with skills matched to labour market demands should also be available. Continuous development of the labour force, adjusted to recent needs in the labour market, can contribute to a region’s competitiveness. Mismatches between education and labour market requirements would be too expensive, especially for backward regions like the North Great Plain Region of Hungary. Foreign language education should also be adapted to the changing economy when selecting target languages and language skills. A workforce equipped with contemporary and needed second language skills can be an element in making a region attractive for investors. Although current trends show signs of improvement, Hungary and especially the North Great Plain Region still does not have much to offer in this respect. The paper examines the reasons for the low level of second language acquisition among Hungarians and the population of the North Great Plain Region and explores the ways foreign language knowledge could promote economic development.

Highlights

  • Employment is one of the basic factors when evaluating a region’s competitiveness

  • Topics overlapping the three clusters are: the effect of technological progress on skills demanded by the labour market, special attention is paid to SMEs lacking the resources for needs analyses and further training, in addition quantitative and qualitative methods are involved in the whole research project (Hilbert and Schömann, 2004)

  • All the surveys on foreign language skills in the past few years indicated that Hungary was in the last place out of the 10 members joining the EU in 2004

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Summary

SUMMARY

Employment is one of the basic factors when evaluating a region’s competitiveness. The creation of jobs alone will not solve the problems of unemployment, as labour force with skills matched to labour market demands should be available. Continuous development of the labour force, adjusted to recent needs in the labour market, can contribute to a region’s competitiveness. Mismatches between education and labour market requirements would be too expensive, especially for backward regions like the North Great Plain Region of Hungary. Current trends show signs of improvement, Hungary and especially the North Great Plain Region still does not have much to offer in this respect. The paper examines the reasons for the low level of second language acquisition among Hungarians and the population of the North Great Plain Region and explores the ways foreign language knowledge could promote economic development

THE CONTRIBUTION OF EDUCATION TO IMPROVING EMPLOYMENT
Matching labour market needs and educational content
HUMAN CAPITAL AS A REGIONAL ISSUE
Investment in training
FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS AS KEY COMPETENCIES FOR EMPLOYMENT
The relevance of needs analysis and motivation in language learning
Insufficiencies and problems in foreign language education to date
Analysis of the most recent figures
North Great Plain Region
English French German
Language skills by age groups
CONCLUSION
The impact of foreign language proficiency on employment

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