Want better pay in UAE? Speak better English

Staff Report

DUBAI – If you want to have an edge over other job applicants in the UAE, you had better speak English well, according to a recent study.

More companies in the UAE are now opting to hire applicants who speak English well, with nearly eight in ten human resources experts saying that they look for English proficiency when hiring employees, according to a LinkedIn research for Pearson English conducted in May this year.

“We are finding that employees with lower levels of English proficiency are finding it more and more challenging to gain employment in leading organisations,” Gaj Ravichandra, co-founder and managing partner at Kompass Consultancy, told Gulf News. Ravichandra said employers who are serious about growing their business need to consider the level of English proficiency of their workforce.

The UAE is home to thousands of multinational companies and hundreds of nationals from around the world. English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the country, and proficiency in it is considered an indispensable skill.

Pearson English, a learning company, said that with English increasingly becoming the common language of multinational businesses, employers need to be able to attract and retain candidates who speak strong English, and they need a reliable tool for assessing their capability.

Do you think you know the English language well? Take this quiz with 50 questions to find out.