Photo: From the final Transnational Project Meeting held at the Valletta Campus in May 2023.

UPSKILLS (UPgrading the SKIlls of Linguistics and Language Students), an Erasmus+ partnership project, has successfully drawn to an end on Thursday 31 August 2023.

This 3-year project, launched in September 2020, sought to identify and tackle the gaps and mismatches in skills for linguistics and language students. To reach this aim, consortium members from 8 partner institutions worked towards a new curriculum component which targets the development of technical and transferable skills needed for industry and academic research among undergraduate students of language-related subjects. This component, which has now been finalised, involves online and blended learning and relies on the use of innovative pedagogies, primarily online educational games, some of which have been developed specifically for this project. 

The development of this new study component revolved around the production of four intellectual outputs:

1. An in-depth needs analysis that gives rise to a detailed professional profile description for the relevant graduates, with the associated learning objectives (knowledge, skills and competences), typical tasks and responsibilities. 
2. An identification of best practices and guidelines for integrating research into teaching. 
3. An adaptation of existing - and, where necessary, creation of new - learning content, aimed at developing the technical and transferable skills of students of language-related disciplines.
4. An integration of educational games into the learning content in the interest of enhancing student engagement.

All of the deliverables published in relation to the above intellectual outputs are available on the UPSKILLS website, together with the learning content which can additionally be browsed through our dedicated Moodle platform.

Since the project’s ultimate goal was to ensure that students in language-related disciplines have better job prospects and transition smoothly to the world of work, therefore creating a better work force for industry and research, the project strove to engage the relevant students, academics and industrial stakeholders alike.

To this end, a total of 6 multiplier events and 3 training events were organised as well. The project culminated in a five-day summer school – the third and final training event – held at the Petnica Science Centre, Serbia in July 2023. This summer school brought together a total of 32 students and 17 trainers from the University of Belgrade, University of Bologna, University of Geneva, University of Graz, University of Malta, University of Rijeka and CLARIN ERIC and engaged the students through hands-on and research-oriented lectures and workshops.

The University of Malta was the lead partner of the UPSKILLS project, with Prof. Stavros Assimakopoulos as project leader.

More information is available on the UPSKILLS website.