Chambers Ireland wants the Government to use surplus funds in the National Training Fund to help upskill International Protection applicants here.
The business organisation said wherever intensive language lessons have been provided to those seeking asylum, employment rates and earnings have climbed.
"Chambers Ireland is calling for Government, and opposition parties, to take a practical and pragmatic approach towards people who are seeking international protection in Ireland," Ian Talbot, chief executive of Chambers Ireland said.
"It is a simple fact that an order of magnitude more people are seeking protection in Ireland today than ever before. This must prompt a rethink of how we act."
The NTF is a dedicated fund to support the training of those seeking to take up employment, those in employment seeking to upskill and facilitate lifelong learning.
It is financed by a levy on employers and collected through the PAYE/PRSI system.
But at the end of last year, the National Training Fund had a surplus of €1.5bn in it and a further €200m is set to be transferred into it this year, prompting calls from employers for the money to be used for alternative initiatives.
Chambers Ireland claims that the return on investment for using the money for such language programmes is 15-40 times their original cost.
"Every month, employers are levied to finance the National Training Fund, which is in surplus," Mr Talbot said.
"Simultaneously, our members are struggling to find people to work as our country has been in full employment for years – 95,000 people joined the workforce in Ireland last year and the unemployment rate has remained flat."
"Meanwhile tens of thousands of people are excluded from the workforce because of poor English language skills – there's a common-sense approach which helps these people become independent, helps employers find new staff, and takes pressure off government finances at no cost to the state. We call on all parties to be pragmatic and reasonable."
Basic language classes are provided to International Protection applicants already, but Chambers Ireland said they are not training people to speak English to a level that helps them find work.
The organisation said many other EU countries, such as Finland, Denmark, Germany and France, have been doing intensive language classes for decades and they cost around €3,000 per person.
