Demand Grows for Bilingual Workers

With a growing number of local employers placing a premium on bilingual employees, it’s tough these days to get a seat in Spanish instructor Art Espinosa’s class at Rancho Santiago College.

“My students are professionals who need to learn a practical vocabulary and phrases and they need to learn it pretty quickly,” said Espinosa, who has taught Spanish for Public Personnel at the college for the past 10 years.

“I get policemen, firemen, teachers, dentists, doctors, secretaries and people who work for the courts,” Espinosa said. “They are dealing with the community and need to be able to communicate.”

Bilingual employees are in demand in Orange County, particularly by agencies that deal with a non-English-speaking public. For some employees, such as county social workers, becoming bilingual can mean earning up to an additional $104 a month, said Richard Silva, recruitment manager for the county.

“We have targeted recruitments for these kinds of positions,” Silva said. “With the combination of the right technical skills in certain professions, a bilingual applicant has a good edge.”

Although qualified bilingual applicants for positions such as public health nurse and social worker are especially coveted, Silva said the county also has a need for bilingual eligibility technicians who determine financial assistance, bilingual librarians, and bilingual counter help.

But it is not only public agencies where bilingual job applicants are in demand.

Officials at the Berlitz Language Centers in Orange and Irvine, where a second language is taught at an accelerated speed, said their classes are now filled with people who have enrolled for professional purposes.

In the first six months of 1993, 79% of the Berlitz students in Orange County said they enrolled in a class because it is required at work. Another 15% said learning a second language could help them in getting a new job, said Patrica Sze, director of marketing.

“People obviously see these skills as tied to career mobility,” Sze said. “In this economy, I think more and more people are recognizing that this is a skill that can enhance their job search and careers, particularly in California. I think people are trying to retrain and learn skills that they think will help them.”

Luis Larious, who taught Spanish for Health Professionals at Orange Coast College last fall, said many of the students in his class were nurses and doctors trying to learn medical terminology so they could communicate with their patients in Spanish.

“Directly or indirectly, it is made known to them that in order for them to be promoted or to keep their job and deal with the population, that the Spanish language is a must,” Larious said.

Rolf Rudestam, owner of the Rudestam Group in Newport Beach, said public relations agencies like his are having trouble finding qualified bilingual job candidates.

“There are some bilingual people but there is always a need for more,” Rudestam said.

Some see the recent signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement as a sign that bilingual job applicants will be even more in demand.

“Because of NAFTA, there are going to be tremendous opportunities,” said Thomas J. Toole, management recruiter for the Laguna Hills division of Management Recruiters International.

“Good people will learn on their own and good companies will make sure that selected people are trained in Spanish,” Toole said.