NOT enough people are being produced by the UK’s education system with foreign-language skills for businesses according to the lobby group CBI.

Nearly two-thirds of about 300 UK firms surveyed by the business lobby group said they preferred staff with these skills.

It said that French, German and Spanish were highly prized.

But Arabic and Mandarin were now growing in importance.

The report refers to British Council research citing an ‘alarming shortage’ of speakers of certain major languages.

The CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey suggested languages were likely to continue to grow in importance.