For this week’s View from the Top, Nick Page, head of Wetherby Pembridge, makes a compelling case for putting modern languages back at the heart of the curriculum. At a time when language uptake is declining across the UK, he argues that studying another language offers far more than grammatical fluency: it broadens horizons, deepens cultural understanding and teaches pupils to see the world from different perspectives.
According to the British Council, the UK lags far behind other European nations in the teaching of modern foreign languages, with less than 10 per cent of 15-year-olds speaking a foreign language, compared with an average of 42 per cent across 14 European countries.
Meanwhile, a 2025 report by the Higher Education Policy Institute found that only three per cent of A-level entries in 2024 were in modern or classical languages. While the acceleration of tech and AI certainly plays a part in this decline, as more people come to rely on these tools for translation, there are also big challenges when it comes to teacher recruitment for these subjects, which
in 2024 met just 43 per cent of its targets.
It is my firm belief that far more emphasis should be placed on the teaching of modern languages in schools, particularly when you consider that the world is more interconnected than ever before and businesses need employees who can communicate across national borders. From a relational perspective, communicating with people in their own language enables you to build trust and greater understanding of their perspectives and cultural nuances. This ‘Cultural Capital’ simply cannot be gained through translation tools alone.
From an academic standpoint, languages provide strong qualifications and enable students to develop a range of valuable life skills ranging from cognitive processing, problem solving, communication and recall.
And for young people looking ahead to their careers, candidates that speak more than one language are undoubtedly more attractive to employers than those who don’t.
In the same way that STEM subjects have become increasingly valued and prioritised, modern languages should be a core offering across all schools, not just the preserve of the independent sector. This will require structural economic investment in order to train more teachers in modern languages and to promote these subjects across schools.
Only by doing this will we help to level the playing field so that many more students are given the opportunities to learn foreign languages, helping to nurture key skills, to broaden their perspectives and to better prepare them for the workplace.