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SELCS offers students valuable skills for employment at a time when language skills are strongly sought after by employers.
Modern Languages graduates are highly valued by employers for their linguistic and cultural knowledge, and for their set of transferable skills. These include the ability to speak, understand and write in a foreign language, intercultural understanding, translation and communication skills, and analytical rigour.
SELCS graduates go on to work in varied roles across the public, private and charitable sectors, as well as working as language consultants and teachers. Some of our recent graduates have been employed by the following organisations:
- Cambridge Education Group
- BBC Worldwide
- Royal Bank of Scotland
- KPMG
- UFR d'Anglais Universite Paris Sorbonne
- Grey Court School
- JC Decaux
- The Sport Review
- MIS Training Institute
Careers by Language
- Dutch
As labour market intelligence by the University Council for Modern Languages (2011) points out, Dutch is one of the five most requested languages in the UK job adverts, ahead of Russian and even Chinese! This is due to the close economic and cultural ties between the Netherlands, Flanders and the UK. Moreover, the report points out that even if your trading partners speak English well, it still pays to speak their language, having developed intercultural skills as taught by UCL Dutch.
As graduates with Dutch are rare this makes for a very vibrant employment situation, even in times of economic crisis. There is demand for graduates who can help overcome the shortage of teachers of Dutch and translators from Dutch into English. The demand for teachers is from adult education institutes and increasingly from higher and secondary education; in the case of translators it comes from Dutch, Belgian and European institutions, from translation agencies and from business.
Our Dutch programmes, unique to the UK, will be of interest both to those who wish to enhance their knowledge of Dutch culture for professional purposes - in the field, for example, of education, media, commerce and tourism.
- French
Job Title Destination Civil Servant HM Ministry of Justice Translator European Commission Art Historian National Portrait Gallery Lawyer Home Office Copywriter University of Liverpool Press Associate Goldman Sachs Lecturer UCL Editor Reader's Digest PR Supervisor Walt Disney Linguist Ministry of Defence - German
Job Title Organisation Accountant Lloyds Translator European Union Communications Executive British Airways Public Ltd Company Teaching Fellow UCL Broadcast Journalist BBC Wales Director HSBC (UK) Editor PJB Publications Head of Modern Languages Brentwood School Senior Policy Advisor The Cabinet Officer Campaigns & Information Officer Campaign to Protect Rural England Selected Alumni Careers:
- Richard Green (German and Scandinavian Studies BA) continued on to postgraduate study at UCL during which time he also developed a successful boutique translation company (The Nordic Word) specialising in the translation and localisation of Danish, English, German, Norwegian, and Swedish.
- Emmanuel Valentine (German BA) went on to spend a year as a foreign language assistant in Austria. He now works at a video games developer in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Chris Morillon (German and French BA) Currently working as a trainee assistant to a MEP at the European Parliament in Brussels, mainly focussing on internal market operations of the EU.
- Reena Rayani (French and German BA) is currently working on the German Equity Derivatives Sales desk at a major investment bank.
- Matthew McCarthy-Rechowicz (Polish and German BA) is teaching English for the British Council at the bilingual Technische Hochschule für Textilindustrie, Vienna.
- Italian
Job Title Organisation Barrister Five Paper Head of Communications Adidas Italian Diplomat United Nations Teacher Townley Grammar School for girls Deputy Fashion Editor Dazed & Confused Label and Publicity Manager Warner Music Group Interpreter Bologna Fiere (BO) Italy Business Development Manager CMPi Lecturer University of Birmingham Client Service Executive Thompson Financial - Scandinavian Studies
Job Title Destination Language Director Hong Kong Institute of Education Associate Lawyer Setterwells Law Firm Editor PJB Publications Senior Development Manager NSPCC Conference Interpreter European Parliamen (Belgium) Communications and Business Development Officer International Family Health (London) Specialist Speech and Language Therapist Great Ormond Street Hospital Director ANZ Baking Group Ltd Non-Executive Director Millicom International Cellular SA Publishing Director Voyager - Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies
Our UG/PG programmes may lead to research, or to employment in which a broad familiarity with Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American culture is an asset. Some of the destinations of recent graduates of our programmes include:
- IMS: Live Subtitler
- British Council: Project Delivery Officer
- University of Westminster: Teacher
- UCL: doctoral research in Spanish Literature
Careers by Programme
- Comparative Literature
Job Title Company Arts Information Officer London Borough of Camden Head of Mission, Dominican Republic The UN Refugee Agency Press Officer Barbican Centre English Teacher State Secondary School TV Researcher ITV Central Ltd Lecturer Tokyo Denki University (Japan) Reader's Assistant British Library Head Office Research Director Promise Corporation Literary Consultant The Writer's Workshop Translator & Teacher British Council (Greece) - Early Modern Studies
This MA will give you a very specific skill set, including manuscript handling and archival research. Depending on the optional modules you select you may also develop language skills and knowledge in information technologies and database use. These transferable skills will make you very employable within the heritage or cultural sectors, as well as library work, the arts, and other roles which require intensive research and/or information management. Our alumni have gone on to undertake further study as research students at UCL and elsewhere, including the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, York and Swansea, as well as some exciting careers in publishing and the heritage sector. They have successfully obtained funding and prizes including the Bryce-Jebb and Dorris Russell Scholarships and the prestigious John Edward Kerry Prize.
Selected career destinations:
- PhD in English, University College London
- Conservation Assistant, National Trust
- Visitor Services Officer, Historical Royal Palaces
- Research Intern, Opus
- PhD in History, University of Cambridge
- Editorial Assistant, Law Business Research
"I teach literature at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and I'm also a computational linguist. I think the EMS MA's focus on bibliography was of great help. It certainly enriched my understanding of literature and I also think it made me stand out when I was hired at the university." Francesca Barbera, MA Early Modern Studies Graduate
- European Culture & Thought
Job Title Company Account Manager i-graduate Research Centre Development London Symphony Orchestra Filmmaker Self-Employed Freelance Journalist The Independent Outsales + Promotions Deptartment World Disney Company - European Studies
Job Title Company Account Executive Amazon Public Relations Analyst Accenture Finance Analyst British Airways Fundraising Officer National Childrens Bureau Grants Manager The Rayne Foundation Intelligence Manager Home Office Interpreter Self-Employed Journalist The Financial Times Marketing Communications Manager Intercontinental Hotels Group Planned Giving Fundraiser Greenpeace Australia Pacific Policy and Project Officer Broxbourne Borough Council Policy Manager The Cabinet Office Principal Researcher Thomson Reuters Product Specialist Canon (UK) Research Manager Civil Service - Film Studies
Job Title Company Assistant Producer Sky Italia Conncect and Create Partnership Manager BBC Course Leader in Film,TV & Radio Studies Staffordshire University Editorial and Digital Operations Manager Universal Music Group Journalist Total Film Lecturer New York University National Account Manager Universal Films New Business/Junior Account Planner Tribal DDB London (DDB Group UK) Professor of European Cinema Birkbeck College Sales Executive The Bookseller Group - Gender & Sexuality Studies
Job Title Company Associate Mandvinalla & Zafar Law Company Consultant Overseas Development Institute & ASTI Editor Femrite International Relations Co-ordinator Unknown Lecturer in Communications Nottingham Trent University Research Officer Public Health Cambridgeshire County Council - Health Humanities
TBA
- Translation Studies
Job Title Company Freelance Translator Rocky Mountain Translations Freelance Translator Harpercollins Publishers Interpreter/Translator Samsung Library Administrative Assistant UCL Official Languages Officer II HKSAR Government Online Ad Operations Manager QS Russian Cultural Event Organiser Academia Rossica Secretary Tsinghua University Teaching Fellow UCL Translator Open Education Group