Many adults often say they’d love to speak another language and wish they had tried harder at school. But for young people choosing which subjects to study for GCSE, A-Level and degree programmes rarely involves the consideration of a modern language.

Because the entire world, or so it seems, can at least understand if not speak English, British students tend to view modern languages as pointless, offering no real career path or progression. The EU is suffering from a dearth in application from British graduates as they don’t qualify for roles in Brussels because the only language they can speak is English, which is not enough sadly, seeing as graduates from the continent often speak more than two languages, including English and usually fluently.

However, there are actually plenty of graduate jobs you can do with a modern language and being able to speak another tongue may give you the edge over other graduates in a field you had not even considered before. So what are your career options?

Let’s split this in to two areas, firstly those that actually require you to have a foreign language degree and those that it is seen as advantageous and will give you a competitive edge.

Translation work is an area where British as opposed to foreign students with a good grasp of English have a real edge. Most translation work these days is from a foreign language into British or American English. To get the best results this requires a native English speaker, hence where you as a domestic British speaker have the advantage. However, other languages, the most common now are German, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin, are also common languages to translate into or from.

Working as an interpreter or working overseas are two further areas where you’ll need your language skills on a daily basis and are essential to getting the job. Teaching is another area where language skills are in demand. The fact that less people are studying languages is as a result in part due to a lack of teachers, so if you choose this profession you could qualify for a £6,000 bursary to study to be a teacher.

Other roles where languages will set you are apart are international business roles, particularly in finance, retail and sales, HR and logistics. Seeing as HR managers in these fields see thousands of applications every month, being in possession of a foreign language, on top of all the other transferable skills you gain at university, will mean your CV will rise up the pile.

For more career advice and plenty of graduate jobs, visit the Guardian Jobs website.