Take learning of foreign languages seriously, it offers job opportunities

The Director of the Ghana Institute of Languages (GIL), Dr Emmanuel Kobena Kuto, has urged the youth to take the learning of foreign languages seriously.

He said apart from making them bilingual, they could also become professional translators and interpreters.

“While Ghanaian youth remain unemployed, these very lucrative professions are invariably taken over by foreigners who come all the way from their countries to train at the GIL,” the director said, adding: “Every language represents a different culture, a different way of life and a different world view. Every additional language makes us more knowledgeable.”

Speaking at the GIL’s seventh graduation ceremony in Accra, Dr Kuto said the average wage for an interpreter and a translator in Ghana was $500 and $300, respectively.

“To make matters even more interesting, I can tell you authoritatively that there is a huge deficit of qualified translators and interpreters in Africa,” he said.

As a result of the deficit, he said, the UN Office in Nairobi, the European Union Commission and the African Union were collaborating with a number of African universities to form a Pan-African Masters’ Consortium of Interpretation Translation to fund translators and interpreters’ training in Africa.

Some of the graduating students at the ceremony.

Graduation

The graduation ceremony was on the theme: “The role of the Ghana Institute of Languages in training language professionals for the job market”.

A total of 64 students graduated after studying for three or four years. Forty-two students graduated from the School of Bilingual Secretaryship, while 22 graduated from the School of Translators.

Role

Dr Kuto said the GIL played a pivotal role in the new trajectory of language consciousness, adding that the school was expanding to meet the growing demand for language education.

As a result, he said, it had recruited more qualified faculty, expanded and upgraded infrastructure and facilities and reconfigured study programmes to meet current demands.

Study of languages

In a speech read on his behalf, the Registrar of the Scholarships Secretariat, Mr Kingsley Agyemang, said the government was prioritising the study of languages and that there was a policy to mainstream the French language into the educational system.

He said the government had identified education as a critical sub-sector of the economy that required urgent attention to tackle poverty and guarantee social stability.