CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT The Language Industry has been continuously growing for the last 10 years, currently being one of the more robust economic sectors with an 11% estimated growth for 2020. Great technological and skill developments have taken place along this growth in the private sector that have outpaced the translation training proposals at Higher Education institutions despite considerable efforts to the contrary by scholars. The Translation Studies community, in the meantime, has adopted a research-based pedagogic agenda to inform translators' training and education with the latest advances in empirical investigations on the translation process. In this context, we find disperse training needs and solutions that evidence a clear gap between industry and academia, impeding quick, quality, inclusive responses to current challenges. While this by now proverbial gap has been one of the warhorses in university translation schools, it is to this day that the academic community has excelled in identifying the main issues with limited success in providing solutions. OBJECTIVES The main objective of this project, therefore, is to develop an innovative, inclusive training model taking the most of technological advances to provide a new, industry-oriented and research-based quality qualification. This objective will be achieved by successfully attaining secondary objectives, including designing an open, flexible online course in response to the gaps and requisites identified in online training as a result of the pandemic and creating learning resources enabling autonomous use. These actions will also lead to a second major objective, creating synergies and knowledge/transfer links between the university and the private sector by introducing modular, flexible and autonomous learning strategies. PARTICIPANTS NUMBER AND PROFILE There are four participants including two academic institutions (UVa and UGA), an LSP company (Hermes) and a technological institute (CTI). The profiles of participants as experts in translation and Language Industry research, teaching, technology and professional practice respond to the multidisciplinary and transnational requirements of an ambitious project that otherwise could not meet the established aims and objectives. ACTIVITIES The project development consists of 16 Work Packages including project design, management and evaluation and all the activities conducive to the achievement of the two Intellectual Outputs, which will be propagated according to a detailed dissemination plan. METHODOLOGY The project follows an inductive methodology formulating a proposed solution structured around clearly set objectives. These aims then cascade according to work packages sequencing including tasks and activities assigned to the different working teams (partners) as per their field of expertise and know-how. The project management is based on an AGILE method, where the working packages, assessment loops and inter-teams feedback iterations are arranged in a way that every team makes the most out of the others´ output in this most efficient possible way. RESULTS The results include responding to the current training proposals at Higher Education institutions falling short to provide language industry-relevant learning experiences and developing a modular training and education model further articulated as an online course. These results are materialized in the form of an an open access learning handbook. The online course proposed will be developed and implemented in a virtual environment, together with its materials and activities, which will be open access resources in order to ensure the modular, autonomous learning experience of participants is structured and relevant. With regards to non-tangible results, this project introduces a paradigm shift in university and professional training that will contribute to a better mutual needs understanding, thus contributing to bridging the gap between industry and academia, as well as introducing new, more resilient methodologies of trianing and performance assessment in the face of social challenges. IMPACT The project improves students employability and professional performance, which has a direct impact on the industry. It also generates critical thinking and autonomous self-training strategies, which is essential for life-long learning and recommended by the guidelines of the EHES. The project also has a critical impact on accessibility, lowering entry barriers to a booming industry for those who cannot access current qualification opportunities either for personal, economic, geographic or any other reason derived from the COVID-19 pandemic. LONG TERM BENEFITS Beyond the immediate benefits, the project puts forward an innovative use of technology as applied to professional training and knowledge transfer. Also, the project entails a valuable training paradigm shift: from a linear, pre-ordered sequence of discrete units, to flexible modules.
The main objective of this project is to meet the needs that stem from the current training offered nowadays by providing materials to bridge the gap between the skills currently demanded by the language industry and language service providers, and the training offered by higher education institutions, which has to face issues related to bureaucracy and also are not flexible enough to go through a reform to adapt to the needs of the market. The intermediate objective that will lead to the achievement of the main one previously mentioned is the design of a virtual and flexible course that will bridge the gap between the current market needs and the higher education programmes on offer. This course aims to adapt education to the new realities that are a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, by creating autonomous educational resources that will allow a wider range of people to have access to education and enhance employability. The secondary objective that this project was conceived for, and that stems from the creation of the course is to create synergies and knowledge transfer between the university and the private sector through autonomous and flexible learning strategies.
The present project was conceived to develop an innovative and inclusive training model that takes advantage of all the new technological advances to offer a new, industry-oriented and research-based qualification. This work will result in two intellectual outputs that meet the needs identified: a training programme that bridges the gap between the skills demanded by the industry and the skills that higher education currently provides. The conception of this course, which would serve as a bridge between the higher education institutions and the labour market, aimed at addressing the current needs of the translation industry by improving the employability of students, as well as covering the needs of people at risk of exclusion –such as unemployed women, people from remote areas, people with disabilities... – and of those who for personal, economic, geographical, COVID-19 related, or any other reasons are unable to access qualifications and enhance their employability possibilities. This project offers the possibility of continuing their training and acquiring new skills, abilities, and transversal professional competences.