ATC needs your help to prove that languages mean business

We need your support for a unique PhD project aiming to prove that language skills are vital for UK businesses planning to expand into competitive global markets.

Everyone in the translation industry knows language communication capabilities are essential for any company engaged in international trade, but little effort has been made in the UK to quantify the link between language skills and the benefits to growing companies planning to export.

We’ve teamed up with Aston Business School to co-fund the studies of researcher Ankita Tibrewal, who is working on a PhD study investigating how a company’s language capabilities can be a crucial way of enhancing its exporting prospects.

The aim of her project is to produce a valid scale to help UK companies planning to enter the export markets assess the value of language skills against the effort to introduce them into their business.

Working closely with Ankita, we believe her research will give us the unique, topical and factual data we need to make the economic case for the importance of languages to be heard at the highest UK Government level. On a grander scale, the project’s success should help your own business grow by resulting in more work for ATC members.

To help Ankita gather her evidence on the importance of language in business, she is seeking your help. She needs to speak to a range of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which are already exporting or are targeting export markets to grow their businesses.

She also wants to speak with SMEs who have never considered exporting to understand why this hasn’t been an option for them

Do you have any suitable companies on your client list who would be willing to be interviewed by Ankita about the value of language communication capabilities in competing for business in international markets?

If you know anyone who would like to help, please forward them this link to sign up: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZBPXWJW. You can also contact Ankita to explain more about the project research and answer any queries you might have on the following email address: tibrewaa@aston.ac.uk.

She’ll get back to any company interested in taking part to arrange a mutually convenient time to talk. As a thank-you for their help, they’ll have early access to the research findings, for their own marketing teams to review and utilise as part of any international business efforts that require the involvement of languages and translation.

Your help in recommending suitable clients would be much appreciated, and we’ll also keep ATC members fully updated with the results of this important project.