English language skills university graduates need for employment in transport and logistics industry

Recently, the Russian transport industry has been impacted much by the far-reaching social and economic events led to the active diversification of transit routes and development of new transport corridors, integration and joint operation of transport modes for in-termodal transportation, as well as rapid digitalisation of transport infrastructure accelerated with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the structure of transport and logistics flows has changes a lot. Transport companies were forced to leverage their scale, costs, technology capabilities, brand and intellectual capital under new conditions [4]. This has also led to an urgent and growing need for highly qualified transport workforce with certain skill sets. For this reason, the Russian transport universities and colleges have to rethink their degree programs, courses and curricula in general to ensure that graduates gain relevant professional knowledge, skills and competences demanded in the present-day labour market in Russia and abroad.

Literature review has showed that graduates of transport universities apart from the occupation-specific knowledge must be equipped with the following skills and com- petences: generic (communication, critical thinking, self-management, problem solving, creativity, collaboration), digital (ICT literacy, digital scholarship and media literacy, information literacy), cultural (cross-cultural communication, awareness of cultural differences) and global (awareness of global issues, such as sustainable development, local and global affairs). Besides, transport and logistics workforce have to be equipped with the right English language skills to communicate and collaborate effectively in the professional settings determined by the ongoing development of cross-border transportation networks [1, 2, 5].

The purpose of the paper is to identify the English language skills required most in the transport and logistics industry.

Recent findings suggest a strong relation between the English language proficiency and employability in the transport and logistics sector as it involves everything related to transportation and the way goods and people are organised when they get moving or are moved inside the country and abroad [3]. Employers say it is necessary to have proficiency in all four English language skills: speaking in an interactive way, listening

(presentations, announcements, technical descriptions, etc.), writing (emails, text messages, technical reports and documents, filing data in grids, filling in forms, etc.), and reading (export documentation, technical texts, etc.).

Firstly, working in this sphere – whether in administration, management, warehousing or human resources, employees need to be ready to communicate freely in various transport-related situations, and not only face-to-face. Large multinational enterprises within the transport and logistics industry often have offices and employees across the globe, in different countries and time zones. Hence, employees rarely meet with their colleagues, customers, partners, shipping agents, customs brokers of freight forwarders in person and rely on different forms of written communication , such as letters, emails, or text messages, verbal communication over the telephone, via Skype or Zoom, etc. All managers and staff must be proficient in English and ecommunication in general. In certain job roles, as for staff involved in research and development, the importance of writing skills is especially stressed. Publications are the main factors when participating in joint research projects, distributing grant money and measuring the outcomes. Over 80% of academic journals in the world are written entirely in English [2].

Moreover, export documents are numerous, most of them are printed in English, some – can be in other languages too. For this reason, most transport companies today require more than one foreign language, considering English compulsory. Export documents include documents of dispatch (e.g. Standard Shipping Note, Dangerous Goods Note, Export Cargo Shipping Instruction in the UK), shipping documents (e.g. Bill of Lading, Air Waybill, Road/Rail Consignment Note, invoices, packing lists, etc.), customs documents (Customs Invoice, Certificate of Origin, ATA Carnet, Shipper’s Export Declaration, Single Administrative Document, etc.), bank documents (e.g. Letter of Credit,

Bills of Exchange, etc.), insurance documents (e.g. Certificate of Insurance), and many others, depending on the country, trade term or individual customer requirements. The employees are required not only to know grammar quite well, but the technical terms and acronyms of export documents, their layouts and the procedures they represent. Knowing that is essential to read and interpret export documentation and technical texts, as well as to fill data in grids and forms correctly.

The results of such investigations may help to identify English language skills graduates need for employment in transport and logistics industry, as well as teaching and learning approaches and practices that better meet these needs. Thus, the identified industry requirements were taken into consideration when developing the foreign language courses for the students of the Siberian Transport University (STU) majoring in International Business (Master’s Degree) at the International Business and Law Faculty. All students are to learn two foreign languages according to their choice. It can be either a combination of two European languages (English, French or German) or a combination of one European and one oriental language (Chinese). At present, there are two English language courses: “Foreign language (English) in professional sphere” and “Foreign language (English) in professional documentation”. Students are engaged in conducting oral presentations, business meetings and negotiations in English, writing business letters, searching for relevant economic information and performing project work and in-depth case studies, interpreting and preparing the documents involved in the transportation of goods.

The obtained results emphasise the importance of studies investigating current educational trends and industry requirements for professional skills and competences, as well as comparing employers’ and students’ perceptions of the graduate skills, namely foreign language skills, that they are developing in higher education institutions.