Ground-breaking teaching materials for improving the job prospects of language and linguistics graduates

More career-ready students in language and linguistics thanks to better soft and technology skills through educational games and innovative support materials for online as well as blended learning. This is the aim of UPSKILLS, a European project led by the University of Malta and involving the Department of Interpreting and Translation of the University of Bologna.

UPSKILLS seeks to improve the job prospects of graduates in languages (including linguistics and translation). To do so, researchers of the consortium made a detailed description of the professional profiles and figures required by the language industry. Afterwards, researchers will identify good practices and guidelines to integrate research tools into teaching activities.

This will eventually lead to define new teaching materials and tools to foster the development of technology-related as well as soft skills in language and linguistics students. Moreover, the resulting new curriculum component will also entail educational games that will enhance students' engagement.

The Department of Interpreting and Translation of the University of Bologna carried out the first UPSKILLS Multiplier Event on June 25. This one-day event presented UPSKILLS’ first results and provided participants with several networking opportunities. Besides a high number of students, more than 200 representatives of the institutions, academia and the industry participated in this event. This shows how current this topic really is. Presentations and materials of the multiplier event are available on the UPSKILLS website.

UPSKILLS stands for "UPgrading the SKIlls of Linguistics and Language Students" and is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership that sees the participation of the University of Bologna, the University of Belgrade (Serbia), CLARIN - Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure, Graz University (Austria), Rijeka University (Croatia) and the Universities of Geneva and Zurich (Switzerland).