We’re excited to announce an exciting product update for learners on FutureLearn. In May 2026, we’re launching an AI-powered tool that translates course content into multiple languages.
Why is this important?
Language barriers present significant challenges for learners globally, hindering access to education and career development. UNESCO estimates that 40% of the world’s population does not have access to education in a language they speak or understand, and many opportunities are often exclusively available to English speakers.
Furthermore, as new technologies and trends disrupt the labour market, there is an increasing opportunity to support the 22% of workers whose skills are predicted to be disrupted over the next 5 years. Local language versions of in-demand courses and career certifications can create greater impact in helping the world upskill and re-skill.
How are we ensuring quality?
In this exciting product update, we’ll release Spanish and Italian language translation options for in-course content. The translation is being generated via Amazon Bedrock, and securely integrated into our courses by our in-house engineering team.
For now we’re concentrating on adding this tool to our short courses, and we'll be rolling out the tool once we've completed our testing process.
To ensure quality, we're completing a thorough quality assessment of the translation integration, making sure that the tool creates an accurate and fully functioning translation. Native speakers are testing the tool.
FAQ
Answering your questions.
How is content integrity protected?
The content that is being translated does not leave the FL platform and the software used to translate it doesn’t share the content anywhere, or use it to train other AI models. More information on the security of the AI that we are using to complete translations can be found here.
Can we make edits to the translated content?
Yes, it will be possible to edit the translated content per step directly within the course run in Course Creator. For more information, click here - Translation support in Course Creator
Will we be gathering feedback on the translated content?
Yes, inside the course learners can leave us direct feedback on the content of each step with a vote and feedback box mechanism.
Can we switch it off for our courses?
Yes, if you don’t wish for learners to have this study tool available on your courses please let your Partnership Manager know and we will turn off the translation support on your course.
Will videos be translated?
Yes, video subtitles will be translated but not dubbed. Any attachments in the download area of a course step will not be translated for now, including transcripts added to the course step.
For more information, get in touch with your partnership manager or email partnersupport@futurelearn.com.
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