1. What is the idea?
Postgraduates for International Business (P4IB) is a new UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) initiative that aims to marry up the language and cultural needs of exporting businesses around the country with local university students.
2. Why is it important?
Companies that engage with their clients in a culturally and linguistically sensitive way are likely to do better in overseas trade. However, surveys conducted over the years consistently show that exporting businesses feel that a lack of language and culture skills may be holding them back. So it’s important that companies have access to foreign language speaking people who can help them with their various exporting related needs.
3. What scope is there for construction companies to improve exports?
The industrial strategy published in July 2013 sets out the global picture for construction:
- The global construction industry is set to grow by 4.3% a year until 2025, primarily in emerging economies.
- Global growth in green and sustainable building construction will be on average 22.8% a year between 2012 and 2017.
- The global population is forecast by the UN to increase to around 9 billion over the next 40 years, from the current figure of 7.2 billion.
To be able to compete on the world stage, UK construction companies will need to continue innovating and become more internationalised to adapt their business models and practices in ways that add value to the goods and services they offer.
4. Will the scheme make a difference?
The scheme is very much in its infancy so we don’t have any success stories yet. However, we have placed students with local companies in the past which has proved extremely successful. For example, we found a Ugandan student for a company in Leicester which felt that its product was well suited to Uganda but needed help to undertake market research. The language and cultural help the student was able to give enabled the company to get a toe-hold in the market which led quickly to sales.
5. How can you get involved?
Any company interested in accessing the service should get in touch with their local UKTI contact, which can be found at www.gov.uk/ukti and following the links.
By Suzannah Hutton, language and culture adviser, UK Trade & Investment
