MFL degree and language experience

[bevelino]

Dd is currently on a gap year and has a confirmed university place to study 2 MFL languages. Do universities assume all post A'level students have a similar ability? How are the lectures/seminars arranged where you have near fluent speakers and others who are not?

Are students tested and grouped by ability or are the less fluent students expected to catch up with the more experienced speakers?

Thanks. I think another Eastern European language would be good eg Polish.

Every Pole learns English and every German learns English. Firms do not generally recruit purely on language ability. If a German person has better overall skills, they would get the job. Look at a language as being nice to have. According to a recent article MFL, History and English grads can find it tough getting jobs so always work on employable skills and internships.

Thanks. I do hear different things about the employability of people with MFL degrees. Some say that they are not very employable whilst others say that some employers want them desperately.

A mixed degree (MFL plus something) may be the best answer. But an initial review indicates that few RG type universities offer these mixed degrees. I wonder why.

Most graduate jobs do not require specific degrees - so an MFL graduate should not be at a disadvantage per se. Employment chances have a lot to do with transferable skills, many of which are acquired in extra-curricular activities at university, so the precise degree taken doesn't matter - it's the person, not the qualification, that is employable.
In my experience (and this is anecdotal) MFL graduates sometimes spent a lot of time fixating on moving abroad/travelling/ 'using their language' in their careers without thinking laterally about opportunities to do that down the line, so they limit themselves as to what they apply for, which may explain employability stats