Country Facing Deficit of Bilingual Employees
The La Nación reports that the country lacks 7.000 English speaking workers, as international companies face the challenge of finding bilingual workers, as 8 out of 10 interviewees do not get hired because they lack sufficient English language skills.

Investors believe that language schools in Costa Rica do not teach English adequately.

A study by the Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de Desarrollo (CINDE) reveals that last year companies were short of 4.500 bilingual employees, but that number will increase to 7.000 this year as more investment comes to the country.

The CINDE study also shows that only 37% of respondents to jobs requiring English actually dominate the language. In addition, when companies recruit directly at the universities, 57% of the new professionals fail the language grade.

Edna Camacho, executive director of CINDE says that 80% of those attending job interviews are rejected because their English language skills do not meet the requirements by the international companies.

"We do not know is the human talent is insufficient, nor de we know the level of English that is managed in the country" said Camacho.

"Service companies use the Marco Común Europeo (European Common Marco of Reference for the Languages) that is a specific table of the different levels of Enghlish. We are co-ordinating with the government to also adopt the table", said Camacho.

The challenge for new companies in the country is to go out and promote for themselves that English language is taught better.

Alfonso Riveiro, human resources director at Hewlett Packard (HP), said that in their case they reject between 60% and 70% of applicants due to their lack of English language skills.

"We are going to increase our manpower to 7.000 from the current 4.400 and the outlook is challenging. The investment will be dependent if we can find sufficient personnel", said Riveiro.

For his part, Cristian Rodríguez, director of operations at Western Union, said that it evident that the resources are diminishing.

Leonardo Garnier, minister of public education, admits the flaw and recognizes that the biggest problem the country has is that "to teach English you need to know English".

"The teachers have to be better prepared. We are in conversations with CINDE and the Cámara de Comercio Exterior (COMEX) to identify where the problem is. We are discussing how to better prepare the teachers". assured Garnier.

The Ministerio de Educación Pública (MEP) records indicate that last year 47% of the 469 teachers who applied to teach English did not make the grade, leaving the public education system short of English teachers.

Some of the students interviewed by the La Nación from various colleges said that the schools are not competitive, the English courses are very basic, and students leave the class without learning to speak the language.

The alternative to the public education is private language schools. However, these schools are too expensive for many.