Translation and interpreting graduates under construction: do Spanish translation and interpreting studies curricula answer the challenges of employability?

Six years after the adoption of the Bologna Process by the Spanish higher education system, it seems necessary to evaluate to what extent the 'employability goal' set in the Bologna Declaration has been accomplished in our country, particularly in the Translation and Interpreting (T&I) curricula. With this objective in mind, the purpose of this paper is, first, to analyse whether the 'practical components' of employability are embedded in the T&I curricula in Spanish Universities, and then, to compare the perception of 'employability skills' in a sample of final-year undergraduates (professionals-to-be), employers and graduates. To collect these data, three different questionnaires were designed in order to identify the most relevant skills for an increasingly competitive market and to provide further information on the additional training tertiary graduates are still required to be considered fit-to-work professionals. The results obtained will shed light on whether current practices in the training of T&I students bridge the gap between academic studies and the challenges of the professional market.