The UK’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology has launched a pilot scheme to subsidize the cost of AI skills training for subject matter experts (SMEs) in the Professional Business Services sector. The UK’s Association of Translation Companies (ATC) is making the most out of the opportunity to support language service companies (LSCs) to upskill their staff, with a partnership with Magic Beans Agency to deliver comprehensive AI training to LSCs — empowering them to enhance operational efficiency; improve service provision, delivery, and quality; and unlock new revenue streams.

“Our aim with this training is to address the needs of SME language service companies, and to upskill their teams with the essential knowledge and skills to leverage AI in meeting the evolving needs of their clients in a tech-enabled world,” says ATC CEO Raisa McNab.

Reclaim the Future: AI Skills for Language Service Success is a 10-week online course kicking off on 4 October, open to all LSCs globally. UK-based SME LSCs have been eligible to apply for 50% government funding on the training costs from the Flexible AI Upskilling Fund Pilot.

About the AI upskilling training

As language service companies adapt to the ever-changing, increasingly digital business landscape, acquiring a thorough understanding of AI and its applications becomes crucial for driving innovation and maintaining competitiveness. The language services industry, by its very nature, underpins the exporting and internationalisation success of businesses in all other sectors – and for that reason it is critical to ensure that language service companies and their workforce are equipped with the right AI skills for business and for the delivery of language services in the AI era.

Online training topics include:

• Core AI concepts and AI in the language services industry
• Identifying opportunities and implementing new AI-enabled services
• AI in language services marketing and business development
• Language services and AI (incl. Machine Translation and Quality Management)
• AI in operations and project management
• Positioning your company in the AI era

The training includes core AI skills relating to the delivery of language services through technologies including the following:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Natural Language Processing
• Neural Networks
• Chatbot
• Generative Models
• AI Governance
• AI Risk
• AI Safety
• AI Ethics

Key training concepts

The training supports language service companies to identify and deploy the AI skills needed within the business, using The Alan Turing Institute’s AI Skills for Business Competency Framework’s personas:

• AI Citizens: members of the public who may be customers to organisations making use of artificial intelligence.
• AI Workers: employees not working primarily in ‘data’ or ‘AI’, but whose roles may be impacted by these technologies.
• AI Professionals: employees whose core responsibilities concern the use of ‘data’ and ‘AI’. These include data analysts, Machine Learning engineers, and data ethicists.
• AI Leaders: those holding senior responsibility for the procurement and/or governance of artificial intelligence solutions.

The training further incorporates the five dimensions of competencies and behaviours within the UK’s Business Competency Framework:

• Dimension A: Privacy and Stewardship. This area concerns the security and protection of data, including the design, creation, storage, distribution and associated risks.
• Dimension B: Specification, acquisition, engineering, architecture, storage and curation. This area concerns the collection, secure storage, manipulation, and curation of data. Competencies in this area also relate to the application of data management and analytical techniques. For example, this includes competencies around handling situations arising from the (mis)use of sensitive data. 
• Dimension C: Problem definition and communication. This area concerns the ability to identify and clearly define a problem, to understand the role artificial intelligence can play in potential solutions, and to be able to communicate this knowledge effectively to a variety of audiences. 
• Dimension D: Problem solving, analysis, modelling, visualisation. This area concerns the knowledge of and ability to apply a range of mathematical, statistical and computing tools and methods to define and analyse a problem and present solutions. 
• Dimension E: Evaluation and Reflection. It is important that all professionals working within the field of data science and artificial intelligence have a clear understanding of the ethics that underpin their work, and take responsibility for the assurance of the models they build.

About the training provider

The AI Upskilling Training for Language Services training has been created by the leading language services trade association in the UK, the Association of Translation Companies, in collaboration with strategic solutions and training provider Magic Beans Agency, based on a needs analysis of the language services landscape and feedback from language service companies.

Magic Beans Agency works with SME language service companies providing strategic consulting and insights to leaders and managers, implementing vital initiatives in tech, quality and talent, providing complete revenue growth and transformation solutions, and delivering critical training to LSC teams and stakeholders.