The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/135206
FEATURES Inside the Met n 2009, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) began a programme of change to transform the linguistic support services that are so critical to policing London, a capital city with such a multicultural and diverse population. More than 340 languages are spoken by residents, while visitors from around the world add to the vibrancy and mix of people, cultures and languages in the city. It is essential that the MPS can respond promptly and appropriately to the people and communities that call London their home. As well as providing specialist interpreting and translation services, Language and Cultural Services at MPS has implemented a series of measures that focus on understanding and developing the language profile of its own officers and staff: collating information on language, cultural and life skills, which can be used to select individuals to assist with operational policing activities. The staff concerned are not interpreters or translators but have valuable skills that help the police engage quickly and effectively with speakers of other languages at an early stage. Those who have volunteered for this initiative – called the Specialist Deployment team – possess a wide variety of language skills: from a language studied at school or university, to a family language learnt at home through background or heritage. While some individuals hold formal qualifications, others have had no means of quantifying or qualifying their abilities other than through 'self-certification' against the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. As part of a programme to enhance linguist services, the MPS has developed a I 8 The Linguist JUNE/JULY professional register of staff with an accredited qualification, which has provided security and support for the officer or staff member using their language, and has provided reassurance and evidence of competency for those requesting linguistic support. Since 2009, the MPS has introduced a baseline competency level to manage the wide range of linguistic skills and abilities that our staff possess. This has involved testing, to an intermediate level, all officers and staff who volunteer. Alongside pure language skills, we want our staff to have the specialist language knowledge needed to handle specific policing operations. We felt it was important, therefore, that any examination reflected the context of their working environment. We also had more than 75 languages recorded across the MPS, so we needed an examination that could potentially be run for any one of those languages – significantly more than most organisations would ever ask for. Following this extensive review, the MPS has started using the IoL Educational Trust's (IoLET) Certificate in Bilingual Skills (CBS) – Police, which has met our unique and complex requirements, providing a contextualised examination in more than 20 languages to date. Working with IoLET has been incredibly beneficial in helping us understand and identify routes to qualification in a public service context, which we would not otherwise have been familiar with. TL Barry Nicholson is Director of Language and Cultural Services at the Metropolitan Police Service. DIVERSITY Policing the Notting Hill Carnival CBS: TIPS FOR SUCCESS • Preparation: consider enrolling on a preparation course. For details, see the IoLET web pages at www.iol.org.uk • Read the Examination Handbook, the Candidate Regulations and the Examination Information Sheet • Ensure you are familiar with the specialist terminology specific to your pathway/specialism • Practise, practise, practise, so you know what to expect in each unit and how to handle each scenario or paper • Allow for the unexpected: plan ahead in case of travel delays • Review past papers to familiarise yourself with the types of scenarios you might encounter • Examination: keep calm and remember to show the examiner what you are capable of. They can only mark what they actually see and hear. www.iol.org.uk PICUTRES: METROPOLITAN POLICE, 28/8/05; 29/8/10; 29/4/11 VIA FLICKR (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Barry Nicholson looks at the language challenges faced by the Met and how it is tackling them