Study: Slovak Job Applicants Have Better English than Czechs and Hungarians

Bratislava, October 3 (TASR) – Slovaks in general have better knowledge of English than Czechs and Hungarians, with the larger number of Slovaks reaching the B1 proficiency level, a joint study of TrackTest.eu and Profesia.sk has revealed.

“Around 30,000 job applicants from three countries – Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary – who stated in their CVs the knowledge of English participated in the tests carried out in 2015-17,” Nikola Richterova from Profesia.sk said on Tuesday.

“Almost one third of job applicants in Slovakia who stated in their CVs that they knew English emerged to be at the B1 level. Such candidates should master most situations involving the need to speak and understand in daily contact,” she said.

Meanwhile, employers seeking people with the knowledge of English most frequently demanded the B2 level. Nonetheless, most applicants didn’t meet these expectations.

“Around 34 percent of people were on the B2 level, i.e. medium-advanced,” said TrackTest.eu project manager Branislav Pokrivcak.

The testing involved three parts – grammar, reading & understanding and listening & understanding. Slovaks on average showed the best skills in reading & understanding, with the worst results being in grammar.

“The results of the testing showed that Slovak and Czech job applicants tend to make similar mistakes. They had scored similarly in 15 out of 17 grammar categories, a fact that is most probably due to the closeness of their languages. They were significantly better in adjectives, comparing adjectives and vocabulary vis-a-vis Hungarian applicants,” said Richterova, adding that more than 42 percent of jobs advertised on Profesia.sk require the knowledge of English.