This might come across as a very strange question but is it uncommon to find engineers who did not enjoy school or think highly of the schools that they attended? I have encountered numerous computing and IT types over the years who did not enjoy school or had bad experiences at school but very few electrical or mechanical engineers.
As someone who has had to advertise and interview, I think that the job adverts did not say 'good communication' but rather something along the lines of 'able to communicate clearly in English'. The interviews were competency based (rather like the professional registration ones) and the candidates were judged on the examples of communication provided (the most obvious one being the interview). The reason for this was that, being an international organisation with English as a working language, communication had to be clear with non-native English speakers to ensure misunderstandings were avoided. This was not used as a means to rank the candidates, but if a candidate was deficient we would have to decide if their technical competence was sufficient that we wanted to employ them we were aware we would have to also make the effort to ensure their communication skills were improved to enable them to carry out their duties competently (there were one or two non-English speakers we took on with this approach, one of whom was Spanish who we set to work being mentored by a Geordie - perhaps not an ideal pairing).
On the issue of the study of English Language beyond GCSE, I was educated in Scotland where there aren't (or at least weren't in my time, it may have changed) separate English Language and English Literature exams, but rather one subject of English, which for me was compulsory at both O Grade and Higher Grade. You will probably find that most Scots have studied English to this level.
As someone who has had to advertise and interview, I think that the job adverts did not say 'good communication' but rather something along the lines of 'able to communicate clearly in English'. The interviews were competency based (rather like the professional registration ones) and the candidates were judged on the examples of communication provided (the most obvious one being the interview). The reason for this was that, being an international organisation with English as a working language, communication had to be clear with non-native English speakers to ensure misunderstandings were avoided. This was not used as a means to rank the candidates, but if a candidate was deficient we would have to decide if their technical competence was sufficient that we wanted to employ them we were aware we would have to also make the effort to ensure their communication skills were improved to enable them to carry out their duties competently (there were one or two non-English speakers we took on with this approach, one of whom was Spanish who we set to work being mentored by a Geordie - perhaps not an ideal pairing).
On the issue of the study of English Language beyond GCSE, I was educated in Scotland where there aren't (or at least weren't in my time, it may have changed) separate English Language and English Literature exams, but rather one subject of English, which for me was compulsory at both O Grade and Higher Grade. You will probably find that most Scots have studied English to this level.
