Within the 23rd annual Saló de L’Ensenyament in Barcelona, ASEPROCE held its ninth annual Language Fair (Salón de los Idiomas) which focused on promoting language courses that will improve student’s future job prospects. Heightened interest was evident, given Spain’s economic troubles, it said.

“Language learning is now an integral part of our young people’s education,” said Marta Galea, the association’s secretary general.  She emphasised that having another language is valued more on CVs than any other type of education.

This year there was a large offering of fast-track programmes designed for students who quickly want to gain a competitive edge in the workplace with an additional language skill. These included test preparation courses and professional programmes for finance, marketing, law and medicine.

Attendees also learned about the new scholarship additions recently announced by the Ministry of Education.

There was a large offering of fast-track programmes designed for students who quickly want to gain a competitive edge in the workplace

“This year there are many changes [to scholarship arrangements],” said Galea. “We had many people asking us when deadlines were and what requirements must be met.”

In 2011, ASEPROCE  members reported that 150,000 individuals from Spain studied abroad. This year, the organisation estimates an additional 30,000 will leave home to learn a language, bumping up the total to 180,000.

This year’s most in-demand languages are English, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Portuguese, according to the agency association.

In addition to the Barcelona Language Fair as part of the Saló de L’Ensenyament, which had 80,000 visitors, ASEPROCE independently organised the Madrid Language Fair held in February and attended by 2,000 people.