Les mots de la pierre glosario del sistema de ...

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Nueva temporada. Número 4. Diciembre del 2010

Traducción jurídica

Nueva normativa para traductores jurados Terminología

Les mots de la pierre TRADUCCIÓN CIENTÍFICA Y TÉCNICA

Glosario del sistema de designación y codificación de mercancías Traducción audiovisual

El perfil del traductor audiovisual y de videojuegos Traducción literaria

Decálogo del traductor literario

PANORAMA

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TRIBUNA

ESTUDIANTIL

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RESEÑAS

La Linterna del Traductor L a

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A s e t r a d

Nueva temporada. Número 4. Diciembre del 2010

EDITORIAL

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LA VOZ DE ASETRAD Adiós a don Valentín García Yebra Crónica de las jornadas de Asetrad en Sevilla El programa de actividades lúdicas de Asetrad Las actividades de formación de Asetrad Reseña de la mesa redonda «¿Pagar por trabajar?»

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TECNOLOGÍA APLICADA A LA TRADUCCIÓN Pildoritas tecnológicas: IntelliWebSearch Pildoritas tecnológicas: Readable memoQ. Introducción y principales ventajas

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TRADUCCIÓN CIENTÍFICA Y TÉCNICA Sistema Armonizado de Designación y Codificación de Mercancías (i) Sistema Armonizado de Designación y Codificación de Mercancías (ii)

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TRADUCCIÓN JURÍDICA Nueva normativa de la profesión de traductor-intérprete jurado: ¿un paso adelante o un paso atrás?

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TRADUCCIÓN LITERARIA A vueltas con el traductor literiario: una reflexión sobre sus competencias Decálogo del traductor literario

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TRADUCCIÓN AUDIOVISUAL El perfil del traductor audiovisual y de videojuegos: una mirada al mercado

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TERMINOLOGÍA Les mots de la pierre

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL Embedding employability in the curriculum and building bridges between academia and the work-place: a critical analysis of two approaches Génesis y planteamiento de una tesis

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PANORAMA Perfiles profesionales en traducción e interpretación: análisis DAFO en el marco de la sociedad multilingüe y multicultural Otras asociaciones: ASATI Traductores no autónomos: Traducir desde dentro de una multinacional

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116 RESEÑAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS Libros para trabajar: Manual de estilo para la redacción de textos científicos y profesionales Libros para aprender: The Entrepreneurial Linguist COLOFÓN Escritores traductores: Jorge Luis Borges No solo de pan vive el traductor: Empresaria de fotodepilación Nuestras ilustraciones: Paisajes de una vida Contexto: Certamen de microrrelatos CONTRAPORTADA

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La Linterna del Traductor, número 4. Diciembre de 2010 Dirección: María Barbero Jefatura de redacción: Isabel Hoyos Seijo Coordinación editorial: Isabel Hoyos Seijo Diseño y maquetación: Cristina López González Coordinadora gestión web: Elena Pérez Ramírez

Colaboran en este número: María Barbero, Xavi Solé, César Espinel, Empar Paredes, Beatriz Pérez Alonso, Elena Pérez, Isabel Hoyos, José Luis Morais, José Miguel Braña, Fernando Vidal, Mario Vergara, Yolande Bernard, Francisco Vigier, Yolanda Morató, Helena Cortés, Sebastián Sorroche, Françoise Bonnet, Fanny Chouc, Elisa Calvo, Alberto Cabrerizo, Marián Morón, Marcella Bracco, Marta Labad, Victoria Massó, Ana López García, Judith Carrera, María Sampedro, Nelson Verastegui, Paula Varona, Irene Guinez, Manuel de los Reyes, Gema Suárez, Mónica Parcet y Llorenç Serrahima.

Colaboradores gestión web: Javier Herrera, Ángeles Mosquera, Esther Moreno Barriuso, Natalia Montoro, Paloma Moreno, Ana Yáñez, Ángela Blum y Pilar Bayle

La Linterna del Traductor, nueva época

Corrección y revisión estilística y ortotipográfica en español en este número: equipo de redacción

www.lalinternadeltraductor.org

Revisión de textos en inglés: Linda Edwards (artículo de Fanny Chouc y Elisa Calvo) Revisión de textos en francés: Odile Martinon (artículo de Françoise Bonnet) Fotografías: Cristina López González (pág. 8), Beatriz Pérez Alonso (págs. 10-11), Elena Pérez y Caroline Devitt (pág. 13), Monse Beltrán (pág. 125), Llorenç Serrahima (pág. 124), Rafael Carrasco (contraportada) Ilustraciones: Llorenç Serrahima Consejo editorial: Alberto Ballestero, profesor de la Universidad Pública de Navarra, socio de honor de Asetrad

ISSN 1579-5314

Difusión gratuita. Periodicidad semestral Cartas al director: [email protected] Libro de visitas: www.lalinterna.wordpress.com/ Remisión de artículos y consultas: [email protected] El Cuaderno de Bitácora: www.elcuadernodebitacora.org

Pedro García Domínguez, filólogo, profesor y editor

Todo el material es propiedad intelectual de sus correspondientes autores. Asetrad no se hace responsable de las opiniones expresadas por los autores de los artículos. Derechos de edición cedidos gratuitamente por sus autores a La Linterna del Traductor. Reproducción parcial o total de contenidos o ilustraciones solo con autorización por escrito de la redacción y citando autor y fuente.

José Martínez de Sousa, ortotipógrafo, socio de honor de Asetrad

Edita: Asetrad, Asociación Española de Traductores, Correctores e Intérpretes. CIF: G83758532.

Helena Cortés, directora del Instituto Cervantes de Hamburgo

Gran Vía, 71 - 2ª planta

Margaret Clark, presidenta de Asetrad Carmen Diego, profesora de la Universidad de Salamanca

Responsables de las secciones: María-Fernanda Poblet (Corrección y revisión) Fernando Vidal (Tecnología aplicada a la traducción) Ramón López Gordillo (Traducción jurídica/ Enciclopedia de la traducción) María Barbero (Traducción científica y técnica) Isabel Hoyos (Traducción literaria) María Luisa Romana (Traductología) Reyes Bermejo (Traducción audiovisual) Fernando Contreras (Terminología) Beatriz Pérez Alonso (Tribuna estudiantil) Isabel Hoyos (Panorama) María Barbero e Isabel Hoyos (Colofón y Contexto)

28013 Madrid Tfno.: 91 758 96 44 Correo electrónico: [email protected] Página web: www.asetrad.org

TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL

Embedding employability in the curriculum and building bridges between academia and the work-place: a critical analysis of two approaches Fanny Chouc and Elisa Calvo

Elisa Calvo es doctora en Traducción e Interpretación y licenciada en Traducción e Interpretación (Universidad de Granada). Ha trabajado como traductora autónoma y revisora durante varios años para distintos clientes y agencias, y durante un año trabajó como traductora y gestora en Siemens en Erlangen (Alemania). También ha sido docente en programas de Lenguas Aplicadas y Traducción e Interpretación en la Heriot Watt University (Edimburgo) y en la Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio (Madrid). Actualmente imparte clases de Traducción especializada (inglés-español) e Informática aplicada a la Traducción en la Universidad pública Pablo de Olavide (Sevilla). Sus campos de especialización académica incluyen el estudio de los procesos profesionales de traducción, la formación de traductores e intérpretes, y los enfoques de empleabilidad en la formación en Traducción e Interpretación.

Fanny Chouc studied in Tours university (France) and later at Heriot-Watt university (Scotland), where she currently works as French Teaching Fellow. She teaches translation, interpreting, written composition and civilization classes in French. She also occasionally works as free-lance interpreter (French-English) and has been involved as consultant on training courses for the police services, focusing on the role of the interpreters in the public service. Her research interests lie in employability, the means to develop valuable transferable skills through interpreting classes, the use of ICT for translation and interpreting training and public service interpreting. She has contributed to various conferences on flexible learning and recently presented a paper at an LLAS conference on entrepreneurship and employer engagement in London.

In most European countries, em‑ ployability is a key educational con‑ cept that has found its way into the Higher Education discourse in the last few years. Probably the question now is not so much whether this is an important concept but rather how skill-based university training should translate into a smooth tran‑ sition to work by graduates. This pa‑ per presents a comparative analysis of employability policies in the UK and Spain in the field of languages, translation and interpreting training. Furthermore, a series of employabil‑ ity strategies are presented and ana‑ lysed in order to assess their effec‑ tiveness. As a conclusion, a number of different initiatives and proposals to improve employability among language, translation and interpret‑ ing graduates are presented.

 1. Introduction Following the European Higher Education reforms launched in the 90’s, a new buzz concept underpins current Higher Education policies in our context: employability. Employ‑ ability aims at giving people access to the skills they need to gain and retain a fulfilling job or transfer to a new, better, job (Hillage and Pol‑ lard, 1998). Employability has been placed at the heart of Education and Employment strategies. The concept shapes the social role and position of universities in a globalised, fran‑ tic world. Higher Education, in the

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL eyes of the European approach, presents a three-fold challenge: granting personal fulfilment, social cohesion and economic growth (Europe Unit UK: online). Substi‑ tuting the idea of employment by that of employability employment brings a shift towards adaptability and individual em‑ powerment. There is a need for switch‑ ing from employment (passive) security to employability (active) protection (Ga‑ zier, 2006). Today’s markets rapidly shrink or expand. Technological innovation, globalisation, restructuring, delocalisation, recession and adjustments, etc., are all factors that put people’s jobs and social welfare at risk, particularly amongst the least-expe‑ rienced, least-skilled workers. In the UK, youth unemployment had almost reached 20% by November 20091 – the current economic crisis is affecting young peo‑ ple particularly badly, and this trend can be noted amongst qualified and unquali‑ fied youths alike: a research carried out by HECSU (Higher Education Career Serv‑ ices Unit) established that graduate unem‑ ployment rose by 44% in just 12 months and had reached its highest in 12 years in November last year2. The situation is even more dramatic for young Spanish workers where unemployment figures doubled. In the current economic climate, the ques‑ tion of employability is crucial and needs to be addressed by universities. Prospec‑ tive students now want to know whether the course they are considering is likely to lead to a graduate job. Both the HESA (UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency) and the Spanish ANECA (National Agen‑ cy for Quality Assessment and Accredita‑ tion) are focusing, amongst other things,

on employment rates as a key quality in‑ dicator, useful to develop and reform cur‑ ricula that better match market prospects and society needs. However, employability is not only about responding to short-term market needs (quantitative perspective), but rather about generating competent, active social agents that are able to react to any given context (qualitative view). As early as 1916, John Dewey, a progressive American educa‑ tionalist, explained that there are different ways to educate from a skill-based per‑ spective, an approach that is clearly linked to employability models: Education may be conceived either retrospectively or prospectively. That is to say, it may be treated as a process of accommodating the fu‑ ture to the past, or as a utilization of the past for a resource in a develop‑ ing future. In lay terms, we are confronted here with three approaches which can shape the stu‑ dent experience in three ways. Students can: 1) become passive containers of the knowledge attained by humanity so far (purely academic model), 2) become high‑ ly qualified professionals who fit in dif‑ ferent existing productive profiles (purely vocational model) or 3) become empow‑ ered individuals who are useful for society and can manage transformation and inno‑ vation (progressive skills-based model). The three models are not necessarily mu‑ tually exclusive. A combination of these paradigms translates into a long-term effi‑ cient approach to employability in Higher Education which benefits society and the individual equally. Both in Spain and in the UK, recent employers’ surveys have

“British youth unemployment hits record” Daily Telegraph. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/eco‑ nomics/6542812/British-youth-unemployment-hits-record-high.html (30/04/2010)

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“Graduates job losses” The Guardian. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/nov/02/graduate-job-losses-increase (30/04/2010)

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL highlighted the skills that employers seek, and these studies’ findings are highlight‑ ing interesting aspects: (UK) Employers are also disap‑ pointed with graduates’ attitudes to work (25%), self-management (33%), business awareness (44%) and foreign language skills (49%). (Archer and Davison, 2008) (UK) Aside from generic employa‑ bility we also need to recognise that employers are increasingly going global, and hence need graduates who have experience of different countries and cultures and so can deal with overseas customers and clients. (Ibid.UK) top three most important skills and qualities: [...] communication skills, team-work‑ ing skills and integrity. (Archer and Davison, 2008; CIHE, online) (Spain) among the top ten most demanded skills are: teamwork, commitment, adaptability, prob‑ lem-solving, self-management, interpersonal skills, ability to talk to an audience, international customer services skills, social skills. (Universidad de Murcia: online) (Spain) There is a deep rift between the skills needed in the main five industries and the candidates’ pro‑ files, namely: at least two foreign languages, IT skills, management skills, etc. (Cámara de Comercio e Industria de Barcelona: online) What do employers look for in graduates? In both cases, Spain and the UK, commu‑ nication and intercultural skills play an essential role. However, the importance of English as a lingua franca generates two different situations: while in the UK

the problem is the low numbers of stu‑ dents willing to learn foreign languages, in Spain, with high student demands in language-related degrees, the main chal‑ lenge is to diversify what is available to undergraduates in order to create more applied degrees. As noted by the employers’ panel during a conference on employability in Octo‑ ber 20093, it is always possible to train a graduate for a specific post through an in‑ tensive in-house training scheme in a few weeks or months, but it is not possible to develop a working knowledge of a foreign language on a similar time-scale. It takes many years of effort to acquire a foreign language and become sufficiently fluent to use it for work purposes, which is why language students have an edge on other graduates when it comes to recruitment. Language studies undoubtedly increase graduates’ value on the job-market, as the figures quoted illustrate. But knowing a foreign language is not quite enough: on top of this knowledge (savoir), employers look for certain skills (savoir-faire) which have been highlighted. These can be gen‑ erally fostered by language studies.

1. ISSUES AT STAKE: A. How can universities prepare future graduates? This issue, as the comparative approach of this paper suggests, goes beyond the national level. Most European countries are faced with similar challenges. The matter has been the focus of a study con‑ ducted under the aegis of the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission in 2005, and

3 «Meeting the current challenges: the humanities and employability, entrepreneurship and employer engagement”, 23rd October 2009, Woburn House, organised by LLAS (Subject centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies)

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL the findings of this study led to a series of recommendations for universities. Ac‑ cording to this report, higher education institutions should: Improve the match to employers’ needs by: - improving the contextualization of cours‑ es and qualifications to the business context - embedding periods of work experience abroad, with explicit opportunities to use the target language, within courses which combine languages with oth‑ er subject areas relevant to business (ELAN, 2005) - making a period of mobility in another European country an expectation for every student in tertiary education. (Ibid.) The European Union has created a number of schemes to facilitate students’ mobil‑ ity, such as the well-known Erasmus programme, and mobility experiences are key to promote transferable skills ac‑ quisition (Atkinson et al., 2006). But de‑ spite the existence of such schemes, in the United Kingdom, the number of students using Erasmus mobility grants decreased between 1996-1997 and 2006-2007: from 10,537 to 7,2354. Language students now almost systematically have to spend time studying abroad as part of the course re‑ quirements, and it is one of the subject ar‑ eas in which the flow of Erasmus students remained stable between 2004-2005 and 2006-2007, at around 2,9605. These figures also show that, despite the growing need for competent linguists, even among lan‑ guage students, we do not see any notable

increase in the number of students spend‑ ing time studying abroad as part of their course and through EU mobility grants. Worryingly, these figures also reflect a subsequent drop in the number of stu‑ dents from non-language courses who have spent time abroad thanks to an Er‑ asmus mobility programme. There are less and less opportunities and demand in British universities for combined or inter‑ disciplinary studies degrees (combining languages with another pathway). This means that fewer graduates with a scien‑ tific or technical background are also able to communicate in French, Spanish or any other language. This lack of language skills does, in effect, reduce the career options open to these graduates. In their own country they will be competing with other EU graduates, who will be equally qualified in their spe‑ cialist field, but will bring language skills (i.e. English and their own languages) and an intercultural perspective to the job. On a European scale, this lack of lan‑ guage skills means that UK graduates will not have access to jobs in other countries. They will also be de-facto disqualified from the recruitment for linguist posts within European Union institutions, at a time when there is a real need for English native speakers with expert knowledge of a given field, and a good command of another EU language. As stated before, the Spanish case is differ‑ ent, as language-related and applied lan‑ guages courses are in high demand, espe‑ cially Translation and Interpreting courses. However, courses are only available in the three main European languages (French,

http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/erasmus/statisti/table1.pdf (03/05/2010) http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/erasmus/stat_en.html (03/05/2010): see subject area tables for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, and 2006-2007. 4 5

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL English, and German) in most cases and curriculum design has failed to diversify into better adapted courses and more com‑ bined, interdisciplinary studies. B. How bridges can be built The impetus, however, should not rest solely on higher education institutions. Universities are not meant to deliver a purely and solely vocational train‑ ing; similarly, they can no longer focus solely on knowledge transfer. Univer‑ sity qualifications develop skills sought by Industry, but students often show a lack of awareness. According to a report commissioned by the DGEC (Directorate General for Education and Culture, Eu‑ ropean Commission): Businesses should be encour‑ aged, though incentives where ap‑ propriate, to: - provide work experience opportunities for foreign students or employees - support education and training pro‑ grammes linking languages and enter‑ prise, working with schools, colleges and universities (ELAN, 2005) While the type of support and the role that businesses may eventually assume in edu‑ cation and training programmes ought to be considered carefully, the interest that companies have in communicating and

cooperating with higher education institu‑ tions is clear. In a context where “11% of companies have lost business contracts be‑ cause of a lack of language skills”, accord‑ ing to the ELAN report (2005), language learning is a necessary long-term invest‑ ment both for the industry and for future graduates.

2. CONSIDERING HOW EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS CAN BE EMBEDDED IN THE CURRICULUM: TWO APPROACHES. A. As part of the core skills through interpreting modules: the case of liaison interpreting – Heriot-Watt University. The methodology adopted in the trans‑ lation and interpreting courses at He‑ riot-Watt University is based on praxis: employability skills are fostered through various academic exercises which enable students to develop key transferable skills while working on specific language-based tasks. A study was carried out amongst graduates to encourage them to reflect on the various academic exercises they did at university, and to establish how relevant these tasks were in fostering the key skills required in their current jobs (Chouc, 2008). This study showed that exercises such as liaison interpreting do play a key role, and are relevant to students on all language courses, including International Management and Languages, for which students do liaison interpreting exercises, even if they are not considering interpret‑ ing as a career path. Liaison interpreting has been described by Keith (1985) as: an activity which takes place when an individual who speaks two lan‑ guages mediates in a conversation between two or more individuals

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL who do not speak each other’s lan‑ guage […] the commonest form of interpreting activity in the world to‑ day, taking place in a wide variety of situations including high-level talks between heads of state, busi‑ ness meetings, and much less struc‑ tured situations such as machinery demonstrations, works visits, in‑ formal sightseeing tours, and even cocktail parties. This activity is introduced in the 2nd year in the curriculum for all the undergradu‑ ate courses at HWU (Translation and In‑ terpreting, Applied Linguistics and Trans‑ lation, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and International Management and Languages); it is also an important feature of the final year programme for in‑ terpreting students, and significantly also for IML (International Management and Languages) students. Having interpreting classes as part of a management and lan‑ guages programme may seem irrelevant, yet the activity is built into the course in

a way which focuses on core skills acqui‑ sition rather than professional interpret‑ ing performance. Final year IML students work on case-studies for the language part of their course. A fictional scenario in‑ volving two companies (one British, one French, Spanish or German) is created and a series of activities is built around this (re‑ search, presentations, translations, reports, etc …). At the end of the three weeks dedi‑ cated to the case-study, a liaison interpret‑ ing situation is created. For the case-study on the cosmetic industry, for instance, the lecturer, who is a native speaker of Eng‑ lish, plays the part of a representative of a Scottish cosmetics brand hoping to ex‑ pand abroad. The native speaker of the foreign language plays the part of a repre‑ sentative of a chain of cosmetics stores in‑ terested in distributing this brand. For the purpose of this exercise, each lecturer pre‑ tends to be able to communicate in their own language only: students take turns at interpreting what each speaker has to say to the other.

Figure 1. Skills map. Reproduced with permission of the University of Kent Careers Advisory Service, who own the copyright. 6

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This technique is known as the nose-rubbing technique, (Keith, 1985).

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL If we consider the skills map devised by the University of Kent (online), it becomes apparent that this task enables students to work on a range of skills which go be‑ yond the obvious communication and foreign language abilities: students must demonstrate good listening abilities, they have to be self-reliant, they need to con‑ sider how they can convey a profession‑ al image and must be able to take notes and rely on the research they have done in preparation for the exercise (they are given the scenario one week in advance). But other skills are also developed in the process, such as problem-solving and the ability to accept responsibility: if the student makes a mistake (for instance re‑ laying an inaccurate figure in a business negotiation), the two lecturers go ahead with this6 until the student holds up his hand to own up to the error and finds a way to correct it (which is where he/she can display some creativity). This exercise is also designed to make stu‑ dents more open to constructive criticism, as each session is followed by a discussion and feed-back from the lecturer. Students also have access to an example of the dia‑ logue in mp3 format on the Virtual Learn‑ ing Environment platform following the class, and they are encouraged to practise with these resources and assess themselves using an assessment criteria list. In order to make students aware of the im‑ portance of key transferable skills in this exercise, they are made aware that lan‑ guage accuracy represents only about one third of the final mark. Accuracy and com‑ munication skills are equally important in the assessment scheme for IML students, as what they are aiming for is a range of skills that they can use in various manage‑ ment and international career paths (rath‑ er than training to become professional interpreters).

B. As a key module covering each aspect – Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Sevilla) Translation and Interpreting graduates cur‑ rently have greater employability chances both in Spain and abroad as compared to a majority of other Spanish graduates. How‑ ever, students end up working in a variety of sectors other than translation and inter‑ preting only, with no previous guidance. These alternative sectors include: interna‑ tional trade, event organisation, tourism, international relations, multilingual content management and marketing, international logistics, and teaching in different sub-ar‑ eas such as Secondary Education, Spanish for foreigners, corporate training, etc. Following participation in an employabil‑ ity-enhancing project designed for fourthyear translation and interpreting students at the University of Granada (Calvo et al, 2010), an elective module was set up at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide aiming at: 1. Disseminating existing information on Translation and Interpreting graduates’ professional prospects in Spain and in other countries. 2. Raising students’ awareness of the skills acquired and/or developed dur‑ ing their university studies. 3. Informing students of alternative job niches and careers. 4. Promoting students’ self-employment skills (as freelance translators and/or interpreters and in other related fields) 5. Providing students with specific jobseeking tools (marketing strategies for freelance translators, CV writing for applying for translation posts and/or for use in the professional market in general, writing presentation letters, job-seeking resources, etc.).

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL 6. Providing information on Translation and Interpreting posts at International Organisations (how to access them and conditions of employment). 7. Analysing students’ professional pro‑ files in order to develop planning strat‑ egies for further training and/or for personal development after complet‑ ing their university degree. The inclusion of a subject-specific module on vocational skills presents clear advan‑ tages and some minor disadvantages. On the one hand, this module directly tackles the main issues and information demands related to careers advice and the translator and interpreter professions. This curricu‑ lum option ensures that students activate their skills self-awareness and improve resources and tools to face their profes‑ sional development. On the other hand, an isolated module may have less learning impact than a transferable approach: i.e., when employability-specific contents are embedded in the different core subjects, as in the HWU liaison interpreting approach. In this same vein, tranferable skills such as project management and quality con‑ trol skills are embedded into the special‑ ised translation modules at the UPO, for example. A combination of these approaches -em‑ bedded and employability-specific con‑ tents- would help attain a graduate profile that enhances both specialised and trans‑ ferable skills and that would prove effec‑ tive both in the short and the long term. Both types of initiative are therefore not mutually exclusive but complementary. At present, both institutions, HWU and the UPO, are establishing cooperation channels to optimise response to students’ needs in terms of employability training and career advice.

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3. NEGOTIATING THE TRANSITION FROM UNIVERSITY TO THE WORKPLACE/ BUILDING BRIDGES A. The “usual method”: career fairs and university career services In each university in the UK, there are cen‑ tral Career Services available to students. These departments are run by Career Ad‑ visors, who have their own professional body, and students can access generic employment support such as help and ad‑ vice for job search, CV writing workshops, interview techniques documentation and mock interviews, etc. At Heriot-Watt University, there is a Ca‑ reer Officer dedicated to supporting each department, generally with some exper‑ tise in this field; for instance, the Career Officer for the School of Management and Languages is a language graduate herself. In addition to this, in each department, a member of the academic staff is Career Liaison Officer: this person works in con‑ junction with Career Services to organise career information events and distribute information to students and alumni, the logic being that the first port of call for stu‑ dents is often their lecturers. However, the amount of support depends very much on people, resources and also on availability. Contacting potential guest speakers, maintaining a website, circulat‑ ing information, maintaining a mailing list, collating and distributing information takes time and sometimes collides with the demands of the academic calendar. Hav‑ ing a dedicated Career Officer within Ca‑ reer Services and a Career Liaison Officer in the department helps to ensure better access to relevant information for future graduates. Staffing resources, however, have an impact on what can be organised and made available to students.

TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL In Spain, there is no such tradition as re‑ gards Career Services at university, since employability issues reached the agendas only after the Bologna Higher Education reform was introduced. A typical setting would be the case of the University of Gra‑ nada a few years ago. With over 60,000 stu‑ dents, there was only one career advice of‑ fice. Significant improvements have been made in the last few years and there are now more resources devoted to guaran‑ tee employability success in this and other universities. At the UPO, for example, the Andalusian Regional Government set up an Andalucía Orienta office (a career advice office for job‑ seekers) which works in cooperation with the UPO Fundación Sociedad-Universidad (a service created with the aim of establishing durable and effective links between society, the market and the University, and which provides placements for students, organ‑ ises career events, offers job listings, etc.). However, language graduates present a skills profile that differs from that of other graduates. They opt for a much wider di‑ versity of posts (transferability) and local markets tend not to provide full informa‑ tion on international job positions. For ex‑ ample, despite the very useful work done by the general career services at the UPO, there were only a couple of language-re‑ lated postings during 2009. International jobs, jobs posted in languages other than Spanish, etc. would need specific channels to be presented to our graduates. Career fairs are popular at almost every Eu‑ ropean University. Employability fairs are organised regularly both at HWU and UPO for all students –not only for language stu‑ dents-, but it is difficult to identify relevant

employers for language graduates, especial‑ ly in translation and interpreting, as many people work freelance, or because compa‑ nies requiring translation and interpreting services use an agency when the need aris‑ es, rather than have linguists on the payroll. Fundación Universidad-Sociedad recently or‑ ganised an event to foster entrepreneurship, in which the Andalusian Asociation of Free‑ lancers was represented, but not many of our students attended this event, despite the fact that self-employment plays a key role in the translation and interpreting world. There is a need for closer cooperation and coordination in this field. Usually, career fairs at HWU target the “major employers” (EU Commission), local translation and interpreting agencies, and also professional bodies (ITI7 and IoL8, for instance). The Scottish experience is similar to the Spanish one: big employers provide advice and support, which is always useful, but it is very difficult to identify potential employers who are likely to recruit in large numbers. According to a market study con‑ ducted by the ACT (Spanish Association of Translation Companies) in 2005, most translation companies in Spain and the rest of Europe are small or medium-sized, so there are no open massive recruitment processes in our sector. On the other hand, most multinational companies do recruit language graduates, but they tend to rep‑ resent a small proportion of their staff and fit in a variety of jobs, so it is unlikely that they would offer many jobs for specific pro‑ files (translator, interpreters, proofreaders, etc.). Hence, the answer is providing future graduates with enough information and skills to design their own career paths and to find their way in the many job niches and profiles in which they could fit.

7 The Institute of Translation & Interpreting (www.iti.org.uk) is one of the two main professional bodies for translators

and interpreters in the UK.

8 The Chartered Institute of Linguists is the 2nd main professional body for expert linguists in the UK (http://www.iol. org.uk ).

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL B. Web resources: - Facebook and other social networking tools: Networking sites such as facebook can be a good tool for infor‑ ming students and graduates about useful career web resources: it is used by most of them on a regular basis. In‑ deed, companies and organisations ha‑ ve started to use it to reach out to the graduate pool. For instance, the EU Commission runs a facebook group ca‑ lled EU Careers, the Directorate General for Interpreting also has its own page, called Interpreting for Europe, business agencies specialising in the recruitment of graduates with language skills al‑ so use their facebook wall to post job offers. Students and graduates are not all aware of Facebook’s informative potential, as they tend to use it initially to keep in contact with friends. Howe‑ ver, good practice can be established very quickly and efficiently because the network between language gra‑ duates is already in place: a post about the facebook group “We are waiting for the 2010 EU English-language translation competition!”9 led to about 50 students and graduates joining the group within an hour. This, in turn, leads to a simi‑ lar use of the network by students and graduates themselves, who can com‑ ment on posts, identify useful resour‑ ces that they have found online, or ask questions to be answered by other net‑ work members. This practice takes time to develop, as students and graduates need to “befriend” the person running the page or find out about and join the Facebook group. It is, however, a go‑ od way to retain contact with students once they have left, as their universi‑ ty e-mail account is closed once they 9 This

graduate from HWU. Staying in touch with graduates through a networking site is also a good way to foster networ‑ king between different generations of students and alumni, and it is a very useful support tool for freelance trans‑ lators: they can use their network or the pivot created by the lecturer or fa‑ cebook group to seek advice, and also to spread the word amongst their peers about urgent commissions which they cannot do themselves, knowing that they are reaching out to a network of people with similar training and skills. At the UPO, a Facebook group has been paramount to start up the selfmanaged Portal de los Egresados en TeI blog, an alumni initiative to share in‑ formation and supply a permanent link between the institution and its gra‑ duates. The UPO has already created a placement position to help maintain and manage information for the blog, the Facebook group and the available e-mail list. - Mailing lists to relay information: as students’ e-mail accounts are disconti‑ nued after they graduate from HWU, they are invited to leave a personal email address with the department’s Career Liaison Officer so that they can receive regular e-newsletters. These e-mails can be about job offers which have been sent to the department and are all channelled to the Career Liaison Officer, but they can also provide use‑ ful links, information on career talks (students can use career services up to two years after they graduate), semi‑ nars and summary notes so that they can benefit from them even if they we‑ re unable to attend.

group was initiated by the Directorate General for Translation, as a means to spread the word quickly once the dates for the competitions would be set.

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Figure 2: Homepage of the Heriot watt University Language Career-dedicated page. In 2005, a Yahoo mailing list was set up after the conclusion of the first em‑ ployability module at the University of Granada. Five years later, the list is still active and its members have used the tool to find jobs and start working as freelance translators. As one of the first networking tools available, e-mail listings still prove useful, as they are complementary to other faster and mo‑ re targeted tools such as social networ‑ king services. - Websites: The HWU website was speci‑ fically designed for language students who followed the courses (thus targe‑ ting translation, interpreting, interna‑ tional management and TEFOL). Job offers are posted regularly, but also con‑ tacts of companies who have employed

HWU graduates before, information on recurring job/internship offers, useful links and graduate profiles. As already explained, the UPO is launching a similar initiative (Portal de egresados en TeI) and a cooperative fra‑ mework between the two institutions is being addressed. The idea of exchan‑ ging resources will probably help HWU graduates to find jobs in Spain and UPO graduates to find jobs in the UK. - Links with professionals: networks such as Proz, Aquarius, Translatorscafe, etc. are a good way to get students to mix with professionals. The tools mentio‑ ned earlier (networking sites, mailing lists, websites and blogs) are ideal for making students and graduates aware of these professional networks.

10

http://www.youtube.com/HWLangCareers

11

Amongst the favourites are videos produced by the DGT and DGI, as well as videos produced by other universities

and by professionals who talk about their experience.

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TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL - Youtube channels: HWLangCareers10 This YouTube channel was created to showcase internally-produced inter‑ views of some of the speakers who to‑ ok part in career information sessions: alumni who speak about their profes‑ sional experience and share advice, but also informative interviews and inter‑ views of potential employers who talk about what they expect of a translator and describe the day-to-day manage‑ ment of translation projects. The channel was created two years ago, and there are currently just nine videos available, but they have recei‑ ved more than 12,500 hits to date (July, 2010). We also feature a list of favourites so that viewers can find other relevant videos more easily11.

C. Career events and graduate sessions: A series of talks has been jointly organ‑ ised by the central Career Services and the Languages department at HWU, featuring recent alumni (who graduated within the past 4 years). This has proved to be a real success, for various reasons: it is first of all very informative and focused, as recent alumni can relate to students and answer their questions, having been in their place

not so long ago themselves. It is also very positive for students, as they can easily identify with these recent graduates and thus feel motivated and inspired. Finally, used in conjunction with the other tools, it can be a way for students to start building up their professional networks12. D. Bringing the professionals to university The series of talks organised at HWU al‑ so featured professionals: potential guest speakers were contacted, or contacted us, and sessions were organised through Career Services. The speakers13 – and po‑ tential employers- were asked to give an informative talk and to focus on how they recruit, what they look for, and how things work in their field for expert linguists. The benefits are threefold: first, for the profes‑ sionals, who get a better idea of the train‑ ing that potential recruits have received through a visit to the facilities and a discus‑ sion with academic members of staff; these sessions enable them to tap into a pool of talent and “head-hunt” future graduates14. Secondly, for students and graduates, who have access to specific information about the professional field and can benefit from targeted advice15. Thirdly, for academics, who can use these contacts to reflect on the training provided and adjust their peda‑ gogical approach to ensure that the practi‑ cal side of the course is consistent with the “real world”16.

12 Alumni who have participated in these career talks use tools like Facebook themselves, and have been happy to “be‑ friend” students online, as well as agreeing to leave an e-mail address for further questions. 13

Translation agencies, the local council, representatives of the DGI and DGT, amongst others.

The benefits are immediate too: a contact with a translation agency was established after this agency took on several graduates as interns. It has led to a very informative career talk, and several students had secured an internship, with the promise of a permanent contract on completion . 14

One of the interpreting agencies involved provided examples of suitably presented anonymised CVs for translation and interpreting jobs, as well as examples of invoices used by professional free-lance translators and interpreters. 15

The module on Public Service Interpreting for the MSc programmes in Translation and Interpreting involves input by professionals, such as Police Officers and Procurator Fiscals. A mock trial is run in a real court or at the training facilities for Court Officials, in conjunction with professionals. This cooperation extends beyond training, and has been the basis of numerous research projects. 16

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A variation of this type of event would be to organise Graduates round tables. Round tables with former graduates were set up at the University of Granada (more than 50 professionals participated in pro‑ file-specific tables between 2005 and 2007). The experience was interesting on three different levels: feedback for students on the labour market was made available; up‑ dated market information for lecturers and the institution was provided; profession‑ als could share information and experi‑ ences and establish new business contacts. The only downside of this initiative is that institutional or private support is required for organisational purposes. 4. CONCLUSIONS In a study carried out by Calvo (2006), a thorough analysis of the different em‑ ployability measures available showed

that learning impact varies considerably depending on a series of factors, such as: whether the training is seamlessly em‑ bedded in the curriculum or appears as an isolated learning experience, whether it is a one-time experience or rather a se‑ ries of activities that take place regularly during a course, and whether the students are motivated and involved in the process. As we have seen, embedded employabil‑ ity skills, e.g. the case of liaison interpret‑ ing at HWU, presented as an example, or the translation training both at HWU and UPO, are probably the ideal setting to gain a long-term impact on students. What they learn through their own experience is more difficult to forget. As far as other measures are concerned, specific modules on employability and personal develop‑ ment, if targeted appropriately, offer a se‑ ries of resources that can be useful both in the short and the long term. Seminars by guests, one-time talks, round tables, career fairs, etc. are very positive complementary measures but present some limitations in terms of learning im‑ pact: if isolated from the curriculum ex‑ perience, students will very likely forget what was said and may find it difficult to link this information to their present cur‑ riculum experience, especially if activities take place in the first years of their train‑ ing. On the other hand, one-time events require considerable resources. An ideal way of optimising the impact of these ac‑ tivities is to create a video database (e.g. a Youtube channel) through which these contents can be accessed at different stages of the learning process or even after grad‑ uation, so that students and graduates can search for the answers to the questions that will arise when they start facing their professional prospects. This brings us to the question of when employability issues should be included in the curriculum. While embedded skills

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training can be included from early years, there are further issues to consider when it comes to other activities. The impact of re‑ alistic career advice on students’ motiva‑ tion is high. Most students do not actually enter Languages or Translation and Inter‑ preting courses with a very realistic view of the objectives involved. The fact that stu‑ dents gain progressive contact with more real-life professional practice (less appar‑ ent in the first years) lead us to think that specific career events should be adapted to the different stages of training. For ex‑ ample, what is the point of a professional talk on the latest translation memory tool for first year students who have not yet even started to translate? There is a double challenge in this sense: while universities should provide realistic information about career prospects linked with every degree in order to recruit motivated students and avoid frustration later, highly specialised career talks will have a greater impact in the final years of the training programme. In terms of employability transparency and alignment, an initial analysis of the information provided by UK and Span‑ ish Translation and Interpreting schools showed that the employability and pros‑ pects information provided in leaflets and websites overrate some job niches which are certainly not open to large numbers of graduates. Very appealing job profiles are highlighted as likely prospects, such as: UN interpreter, video game localiser, liter‑ ary translator. While only some students will be able to enter these highly specific sectors, most will find their way into a much broader international job market, in which transferable skills are of key impor‑ tance, starting with language, communica‑ tion and information skills. Internship schemes are good ways of pro‑ moting better employability, but there is a need to set up: 1) appropriate assessment

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methods. 2) placement tutoring systems and 3) employer training materials or ses‑ sions in order to make sure that they know what is expected from them by the insti‑ tution and students. The same applies to mobility schemes. According to Morón (2009), there is a need to seamlessly embed mobility in the curriculum as well as to es‑ tablish assessment methods in line with a skills recognition policy. At HWU, for in‑ stance, students have to prepare a research project based on their student mobility on a given topic in order to provide evidence of the variety of skills (linguistic, cultural, field-specific) acquired during their mobil‑ ity period. There is a clear need for schools to main‑ tain a system for remaining in touch with graduates in order to construct an efficient network between students, graduates and the institution. This is particularly impor‑ tant in the case of language graduates and measures should be taken before gradu‑ ates leave, as many of them will travel the world. International networking is a must in our field. How can HWU graduates find out about postings in Spain? And Spanish graduates in the UK? How can they gain insight on the different markets? Sharing resources is a way to enhance local experi‑ ence with wider input. Further interesting initiatives could include setting up professional tuition schemes, with volunteer graduates stepping for‑ ward to guide newcomers to the market, a service already provided by some pro‑ fessional associations. Professional agents can also contribute by sponsoring or coop‑ erating with employability initiatives like those described in this paper. 

TRIBUNA ESTUDIANTIL

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