NIU Newsroom – Staff Writer
“Half of all employers in northern Illinois plan to hire more bilingual or multilingual college graduates within five years, according to a report released today by the Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies. About one-third of all respondents said that they are currently seeking bilingual employees. Nearly four out of five respondents (78.1 percent) said that the ability to communicate effectively in more than one language is helpful for customer/client relations. “The findings of this study confirm that career success – a cornerstone goal at NIU – will increasingly come from graduates who have language fluency beyond English,” NIU President Doug Baker said. “This has implications for the priority that higher education must place on language skills.””(more)