The Spanish language is spoken by more than ½ billion people worldwide and is the fourth most spoken language in the world after English, Mandarin and Hindi. In addition to Spain, it is mainly spoken as an official language in Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean, but there are also around 58 million speakers in the USA. More than 21 million people learn Spanish as a foreign language, whether in a Spanish course or by other means, as "El País", the largest Spanish daily newspaper, reported in aArticlepublished in November 2017. This shows how important Spanish is worldwide and how great people's interest in learning this language is. But what does this look like in Switzerland? How important is Spanish for the workplace in Switzerland? And how great is the interest in this language and therefore in a Spanish course here?
Not only are you interested in a Spanish course, but so are many other people living in Switzerland. At least that's what the average monthly search queries on Google suggest. Up to 10,000 people from Switzerland enter "learn Spanish" into the search engine every month, which clearly shows how popular this topic is in Switzerland and how many people are interested in improving their Spanish skills or building up basic competencies. However, this figure does not show how many of these users are looking for a language course. However, if you look at the individual terms used in this context, you can see that up to 1,000 people a month search for precisely these terms: Spanish course, Spanish course and even Spanish language stay. The interest in a language course in Spanish is therefore indeed there, which also explains the large number of courses, course providers and Spanish teachers that can be found on the Swiss education market.
The terms "learn Spanish app", "learn Spanish for free" and "learn Spanish online" are also popular search terms and show that people are also looking for alternative learning methods outside the classroom for their Spanish course.
Around 43% of working people in Switzerland use more than one language in their everyday working life, and regularly do so at least once a week, according to a survey by theFederal Statistical OfficeBFS determined. In addition to the national languages German, French or Italian, this is usually English in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland and German in Italian-speaking Switzerland. And what about Spanish? Is what you learn in a Spanish course actually used in everyday working life? Yes! Even if not by many employees in Switzerland. In Switzerland as a whole, 1.8% of employees regularly use Spanish at work, mainly speaking it. If you only look at the French-speaking area, the figure is as high as 2.7% of employees.
If English and the national languages are so important in the Swiss job market, is it really an advantage to learn Spanish? Wouldn't it be better to learn English, French or Italian? Certainly, these languages are used more in everyday working life than Spanish and are therefore more frequently required by companies. Nevertheless, it is clear that it can be worthwhile to attend a Spanish course, as globalization and digitalization continue to advance and, after the economic turbulence of the past few years, Latin American countries are finally being predicted to experience slight growth again. For people with a very good knowledge of Spanish, e.g. from a Spanish course, new possibilities and opportunities are therefore opening up in many sectors and companies. This is also due to the fact that there are fewer Spanish speakers in Switzerland than French, English or Italian speakers.
But what opportunities and which sectors are these exactly? It is not only as a Spanish teacher, translator or interpreter that people with a very good knowledge of Spanish (native speaker level) can find employment after a professional Spanish course. Knowledge of Spanish is also valuable in many other areas. At the end of 2015, around 180,000 people were working inLatin AmericaFor Swiss companies, exports were worth CHF 6.2 billion and imports CHF 2.7 billion (compared to around CHF 3.5 billion and less than CHF 1.1 billion respectively in 2004). All figures include Brazil). Foreign trade between Switzerland and Latin America therefore offers good prospects of employment in management positions in Switzerland and abroad for people who have a very good command of Spanish thanks to a Spanish course and, of course, the right professional training and further education.
Although Brazil is still Switzerland's largest trading partner in Latin America, large Swiss companies and SMEs are showing increasing interest in the Spanish-speaking countries. This is because the automotive sector in Mexico in particular offers interesting opportunities for suppliers, as do the infrastructure and aerospace sectors. In Argentina, mainly chemical and pharmaceutical products are imported from Switzerland, as well as watches and machinery. Raw materials such as gold and silver, tin and copper, crude oil, lithium, ores and coal are still the main exports in many countries, followed by a wide variety of agricultural products. The language skills acquired in a Spanish course are therefore very good prerequisites for importing and exporting and a competitive advantage over competitors for an interesting job in this sector.
Of course, the tourism and hotel industries also offer many opportunities for professionals with Spanish language skills. But knowledge of Spanish from a Spanish course can also be a great advantage for healthcare professionals and lawyers, as well as for people working in banking and finance. Spanish is also important in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
If you are taking a Spanish course to gain a professional advantage, a new job, a higher position or an increased income, you should already know exactly what your goals are. Acquiring language skills through a Spanish course can only lead to a positive career change if they are actually needed for the job you are aiming for. In the retail trade in the countryside, your knowledge of Spanish will probably be of little use to you and will therefore not be financially rewarded, but at an airline, knowledge of Spanish may even be a recruitment criterion. It therefore depends very much on the job in question and the professional requirements as to whether a Spanish course will have a positive financial impact on your salary.
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