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The language skills of white-collar workers on the Belgian labor market are declining. This was evident on Wednesday from the results of more than 33,000 language proficiency tests administered by HR partner Bright Plus between 2015 and 2023.
Source: BELGA
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The knowledge of French among Dutch-speaking Belgians is decreasing, French-speaking Belgians have lower scores for Dutch and their knowledge of English is generally declining.
Because Bright Plus focuses on multilingual white-collar workers, only candidates who are expected to have good language skills are tested. The downward trend in these results therefore means that the language skills of Belgian employees are probably even more worrying in practice.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Linda Cappelle, CEO of Bright Plus. “Our brains are our most important Belgian export product and declining language skills endanger the competitiveness of Belgian companies. (…) Languages should receive at least as much attention as STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).”
Young people speak better English, older people speak better French
The knowledge of French among Dutch-speaking Belgians has fallen from a level at which it is possible to express an opinion and talk about experiences, to that of a command of frequent, everyday expressions. French-speaking Belgians also see their knowledge of Dutch decline, to a level where, on average, they are no longer able to formulate their opinions clearly.
In general, knowledge of English has declined from almost the level at which one can understand the main points of complex texts, to just being able to express one’s own opinion.
Younger candidates score higher than older candidates on English language skills for both reading comprehension and listening, while older candidates do better in Dutch or French.