Partners from 6 European countries came together under the heading of the ToolsForSkills project with a view to improving professional and language skills among European Forest Machine Operators. Building on past-funded developments, partners specifically targeted the development of a multilingual Forest Workers’ Glossary as well as a series of learning outcomes and associated training materials for use in different partner countries, the latter presented separately in the WBL Toolkit. A single Forest Workers Glossary was ultimately produced, covering 16 European languages and 3000 technical terms, with a view to facilitating understanding of often-technical forest machine manuals and parts catalogues, as well as communication, more general, among those working in the forestry sector.
The need and rationale for a single glossary for the targeted forestry (forest machine) sector is clear and it is positive to see both the range and extent of the composite data with 3000 technical terms extending to English, Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, French, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish and Swedish. There is also an App that can be downloaded for iPhone and Android smart phones, enabling the Glossary to be used in the field. In addition to aiding communication in the targeted sector, the Forest Workers’ Glossary has clear potential to inform wider training and qualifications development, providing a single set of terms and terminology.