Employability and entrepreneurship in the training of translators and interpreters: A proposal to develop the entrepreneurial skills of translation and interpreting graduatesSince the Bologna Process came into force, many Higher Education (HE) institutions have started to include in their curricula professional competences and skills that help to develop entrepreneurship in their graduates in the context of a constantly evolving labour market. Within the framework of Translation and Interpreting (T&I) Studies, although numerous initiatives are being carried out in recent years to improve professional skills and encourage students' entrepreneurial attitudes, several recent research studies show that professional and entrepreneurship contents are not clearly integrated in all undergraduate T&I curricula. This article aims to describe the scene of T&I training in Spain in relation to entrepreneurship between 2015 and 2020. To do so, we will first analyse the concept of entrepreneurship in the current HE framework, paying special attention to its integration into the curricula for translator training in Spain. Subsequently, we will present a specific proposal for the development of employability and entrepreneurship skills in this context, developed at the University of Valladolid over several academic years.
Keywords
Entrepreneurship; translator training; entrepreneurial skills; employability
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Source: Author (2024) [Description of the image] Title of the figure: The skills acquired in the project will be useful for my professional life. This is a horizontal bar graph with six clusters representing six different academic years. Each cluster contains five vertical bars corresponding to a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates strong disagreement and 5 indicates strong agreement with the title statement. The vertical axis on the left is labelled 'Percentage of students' and it's segmented into increments of 10, ranging from 0 at the bottom to 80 at the top. The horizontal axis along the bottom is labelled 'Academic years (from 2016-2017 to 2021-2022)' with each cluster of bars representing a year's survey results. Each bar's height is proportional to the percentage of students who selected that particular level of agreement for each academic year. The pattern of bar heights varies across the academic years, indicating fluctuations in the students' perceptions of the usefulness of the skills acquired [End of description].
Source: Author (2024) [Description of the image] Title of the figure: The activities proposed throughout the project (curricular and extracurricular) have made it easier for me to learn the contents. This is a horizontal bar graph with six clusters representing six different academic years. Each cluster contains five vertical bars corresponding to a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates strong disagreement and 5 indicates strong agreement with the title statement. The vertical axis on the left-hand side is labelled 'Percentage of students', and it ranges from 0% to 80%, with horizontal lines marking each increment of 10%. Each bar's height indicates the percentage of students who selected each Likert scale rating for that academic year's activities in relation to how those activities affected their learning. The horizontal axis along the bottom is labelled 'Academic years (from 2016-2017 to 2021-2022)' with each cluster of bars representing a year's survey results. Each bar's height is proportional to the percentage of students who selected that particular level of agreement for each academic year [End of description].
Source: Author (2024) [Description of the image] Title of the figure: The number and type of activities (conferences, workshops, round tables) seem appropriate to me. This is a horizontal bar graph with six clusters representing six different academic years. Each cluster contains five vertical bars corresponding to a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates strong disagreement and 5 indicates strong agreement with the title statement. The vertical axis on the left-hand side is labelled 'Percentage of students' and it's marked in increments of 10, ranging from 0% to 70%. The horizontal axis, labelled 'Academic years (from 2016-2017 to 2021-2022)', is divided into six categories, each containing a group of bars for the Likert scale ratings from 1 to 5. The height of each bar reflects the proportion of students that chose each level of agreement for each academic year. The distribution of responses varies across the years, showing the differing levels of student agreement with the statement about the appropriateness of the activities proposed [End of description].
Source: Author (2024) [Description of the image] Title of the figure: The project has been useful in giving me a clearer understanding of the professional profile I aspire to. This is a horizontal bar graph with six clusters representing six different academic years. Each cluster contains five vertical bars corresponding to a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates strong disagreement and 5 indicates strong agreement with the title statement. The vertical axis on the left-hand side is labelled 'Percentage of students' and it's marked in increments of 10, ranging from 0% to 90%. The horizontal axis, labelled 'Academic years (from 2016-2017 to 2021-2022)', is divided into six categories, each containing a group of bars for the Likert scale ratings from 1 to 5. Each bar's height shows the percentage of students who have chosen each level of agreement regarding the project's utility in clarifying their aspired professional profile for each academic year. The variation in the heights of the bars across the groups suggests changes in the students' perspectives over the years [End of description].
Source: Author (2024) [Description of the image] Title of the figure: In general, my level of satisfaction with the project is.... This is a horizontal bar graph with six clusters representing six different academic years. Each cluster contains five vertical bars corresponding to a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates strong disagreement and 5 indicates strong agreement with the title statement. The vertical axis on the left-hand side is labelled 'Percentage of students' and it's marked in increments of 10, ranging from 0% to 80%. The horizontal axis, labelled 'Academic years (from 2016-2017 to 2021-2022)', is divided into six categories, each containing a group of bars for the Likert scale ratings from 1 to 5. Each bar visually represents the percentage of students that chose a particular level of satisfaction with the project. The pattern of bar heights varies across the academic years, indicating different levels of overall student satisfaction for each year [End of description].