UPSKILLS Project

UPgrading the SKIlls of Linguistics and Language Students

The UPSKILLS project is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership for higher education that seeks to identify and tackle the gaps and mismatches in skills for linguistics and language students through the development of a new curriculum component and supporting materials to be embedded in existing programmes of study.

Guidelines and Best Practices for Research-Based Teaching

An account of the 3rd UPKSILLS multiplier event, 04/11/2022, Utrecht Teaching and research constitute the two core activities in academia. Yet, they are typically planned, performed and evaluated separately, often by different teams. This means that many possibilities...

Fit for the job market? Teaching transferable skills to future language experts

An account of the 2nd UPKSILLS multiplier eventThe aim of the second UPSKILLS multiplier event was to share our best practices and guidelines for the collection and creation of learning content targeting transferable skills which can be put to use in language-related...

Every time I hire a linguist…

An account of the 1st UPKSILLS multiplier eventIn keeping with the spirit of UPSKILLS, the first multiplier event of the project was conceived not only as a way of disseminating results, but also as a concrete opportunity for university students – and lecturers – to...

Integrating research into teaching (Survey now closed)

Are you a researcher who is also teaching in linguistics and language-related disciplines? We are currently compiling some guidelines regarding best practices in research-based teaching. If you would like to contribute and share your knowledge, please fill in the...

Game Play Preferences Survey (Survey now closed)

Have you recently graduated or are you currently reading for a linguistics or language-related Higher Education degree? The UPSKILLS project is investigating the use of games and gamification as supporting methods to target skills gaps and address industry and...

Needs analysis (Survey now closed)

Do you employ linguists? To find out how to better prepare linguists and language experts for the evolving job market, the project consortium is reaching out to companies and other employers. We hope that you can help us by answering 10 questions in the survey below....

Opportunities

Technology giants such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook all work with language data and the demand for research skills in language-related domains is constantly growing. University curricula, however, are rarely oriented towards the digital skills needed in research and industry jobs. As a result, students tend to be poorly prepared for research or industry careers.

Workplan

To meet this challenge, we are producing four intellectual outputs:

  1. A multifaceted needs analysis providing a detailed professional profile description for language data scientists.
  2. A synthesis of best practices and guidelines for research-based teaching.
  3. A set of dedicated curricula, which aggregate existing educational resources and new materials.
  4. A set of educational games, repurposed to fit our curricula contents.

The delivery of each intellectual output is to be complemented with a dedicated multiplier event, while we are additionally organising two train-the-trainers events and a summer school to take place in July 2023.

Impact

The project is expected to result in a new profile of graduates in language-related disciplines, who will fit well in contemporary professional environments, both in industry and academia. In this regard, its impact goes beyond the members of the UPSKILLS consortium. Our ultimate aim is to lead to better job prospects for students in language-related disciplines and beyond, a smoother transition to the world of work, and a better work force for industry and research.