#TranslatingEurope Forum 2017

Focus on new skills, new markets, new profiles 

The Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) of the European Commission is organising the 4th edition of the Translating Europe Forum, focusing this year on translators skills and employability.  We will welcome representatives of all sides of the European translation community to debate the following topics: 

- What skills do young and established translators need to master in order to thrive in the business?

- Are there sets of "new skills" corresponding to changing/emerging market needs?

- What are the new profiles needed in the language industry?  

- How can translators keep up to date and find the right training at the right time?

- What are the specific skills required to master translation tools and technologies? 

We are seeking contributions from our stakeholders in relation to the theme of this year's Forum, and in particular to the following areas: 

NEW PROFILES FOR NEW MARKETS 
 language industry initiatives (such as traineeships or work placements): showcase of projects, exchange of best practices, ideas for new University-industry partnerships

 emerging profiles on demand

 new vertical markets requiring new skills

 hard skills - soft skills - extra-linguistic skills: which ones are more relevant for different profiles (freelancers, in-house translators, etc) 

TRAINING FOR NEW SKILLS 
 building bridges between University and the job market

 Continuing Professional Development programmes for translators (put in place by associations, universities, large employers of translators, …) 
 how to develop specific skill sets such as: tech-writing / tech-communication, Project Management, web translation, audio-visual translation, format processing, … 

TRANSLATION TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY SKILLS 
 how translation technologies are driving new behaviours and creating new market demand  

 post-editing of (Neural) Machine Translation output

 (new) language technologies and related skills

 translation technologies for lesser used languages – special skills, new opportunities. 
 
Interested stakeholders are invited to submit their proposal for contribution on one or more of the topics above. The proposals may concern examples of best practices, relevant university programmes or courses, case studies, intermediate or final outputs of research projects. 
 
Please note that, in order to ensure equal treatment and non-discrimination of market operators, DGT will not retain proposals focused on mere presentations of existing commercial IT products. 
 
Format 
 
Contributions can be proposed for one of the following formats:  
 
-  short talks or panel presentations (max. 15')

-  roundtable discussions

-  poster presentations 
 
Selection criteria 
 
Proposals for contribution will be evaluated against the following criteria: 
 
- quality of the presentation

- relevance to the #TranslatingEurope Forum 2017 theme

- interest for DGT target audience 
 
Proposals involving several stakeholder communities will be preferred, and projects taking into account the specific viewpoint of young translation professionals are particularly welcome. The selection will also reflect the intention to build a varied programme, balancing research-related proposals and case studies, examples of best practices and showcases of existing projects. 
 
How to submit your proposal 
 
Interested stakeholders are invited to submit their proposal for contribution by filling in the online form, preferably in English. 
 
During the Forum interpretation will be provided to/from English, French and German.  
Authors are encouraged to deliver their contribution in the language they feel more comfortable with, interpretation from additional languages may be added if needed. 
 
 
Deadline for submitting proposals 
 
Proposals for contribution must be submitted via the online form no later than 31.3.2017, 23:59 CET.  
 
Stakeholders having submitted a proposal will be notified by email about the outcome of the selection by 31.5.2016.   

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