Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry is marking National Languages Day today to call for more investment in training.

Fewer students are leaving school without language qualifications than ever before.

BCI policy adviser Kasia Kurowska said: "Language skills are becoming increasingly important for businesses.

"With the EU expanding, as well as growing economies in the Far East, Britain risks being left behind because people haven't got a second language. Just because the rest of Europe has English as a second language, doesn't mean we don't have to try. The chance of doing deals increases greatly if we at least try to converse with them in their own language.

"With the number of migrant workers entering Britain also increasing, it is changing the make-up of our communities and languages other than English are going to be vital to take advantage of this shift. There is a huge potential to harness the existing languages resources in our minority ethnic groups, predominately the Asian population, to develop innovative business partnerships."

And she added: "We are pleased the Government is considering making language lessons compulsory for English GCSE students again. There has been a drastic decline in the number of youngsters learning foreign languages at both GCSE and A Level. This U-turn in languages policy has been a long time coming."