practitioners, particularly through
mentoring programmes and internships.
3 Facilitate access to reliable and
comprehensive information on training
opportunities and resources.
Individual professional translators are well
placed and often keen to support new
practitioners but may lack the opportunity or
resources to do so. The professional bodies
can, however, provide a structure for bringing
established and new translators together,
through forums, at events or by developing a
framework for formal mentoring. They can
provide high-quality CPD in the areas new
translators say they need most, both in-house
and through partner organisations. They can
act as a central hub of information on training
and resources, and produce accurate,
reliable, up-to-date guidance.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they
can work with academic institutions, both to
encourage students to become part of a
professional community – even before they
embark on their careers – and to explore new
ways of cooperating to support the transition
from education to practice.
Newly established translators face multiple
challenges in their first few years of practice,
from doubts about where to position
themselves in the market, to falling prey to
the temptation to work at any price, simply to
overcome the 'no
work/no
experience'
barrier. With
FEATURES
the combined support of academic
institutions and the professional bodies, they
can be helped to avoid the most obvious
financial and organisational pitfalls faced by
many small businesses. And that, surely, is
the best way of future-proofing the
profession to the benefit of us all.
Notes
1 For videos of the presentations and panel
discussions, see www.ciol.org.uk > Home >
News, 30/7/14
2 Results of the survey are available on the
CIOL website
3 86% of respondents to the 2011 CIOL/ITI
Rates and Salaries Survey for Translators and
Interpreters identified themselves as freelancers
4 Details of all courses included in the survey
are available from Karen Stokes
5 'Future-Proofing the Profession' report (see
www.ciol.org.uk > Home > News); accessed
30/10/14
17
:
©
SHUTTERSTOCK
working in teams, terminology management,
professional ethics and translation tools.
Critically, in all but two cases, professional or
business skills modules were an optional,
rather than a compulsory part of the course.
Formal modules do not necessarily
represent students' sole point of contact with
the translation industry. Many of the
institutions surveyed run informal, one-off
events or talks on setting up in business.
Many professional translators also teach on
university programmes, offering valuable
insights based on their own experience, but
with a full curriculum, there is often limited
time in which to share their knowledge.
It would be all too easy to criticise
universities for not preparing students
adequately. Perhaps, however, it is
unreasonable to expect academic institutions
to turn out competent translators who are
also fully fledged entrepreneurs, often after
just a year's postgraduate study.
As Dorothy Kelly, from the University of
Granada, noted in her presentation at the
'Future-Proofing the Profession' event: "For
some reason, in translator education,
universities are supposed to produce totally
and utterly fit-for-purpose translators the day
after they receive their degree. It is not an
expectation of the law faculties; it is not an
expectation of the medicine faculties and I
would certainly not want to put myself in the
hands of a cardiologist who had only
received her degree yesterday."
5
Most translators do not, however, have the
benefit of the structured post-qualification
training available to some other professions.
So how do we bridge the gap between
classroom and practice? Three of the five
recommendations in the 'Future-Proofing the
Profession' report point the way forward in
this area:
1 Work collaboratively to provide continuing
professional development (CPD)
opportunities to improve specialist
domain knowledge and technological,
interpersonal, intercultural and
professional skills, for both recent
graduates and established translators.
2 Increase support for newly
established translators through formal
and informal contact with experienced
Vol/53 No/6 2014
