Employability as an ethos in translator and interpreter training

Abstract

‘Employability’ is now a key term in university strategies in the UK and increasingly across Europe. Pressure to implement such strategies can lead to bolted-on rather than embedded activities within academic curricula. This paper argues that employability should be an embedded ethos for translation and interpreting courses in particular. Employability can be addressed effectively by using real world applications of learning, to enrich the discipline but also to provide distinct types of intellectually stimulating content. The University of East Anglia has a long history of this approach. This paper outlines case studies of effective practice at Masters and undergraduate level, including modules where students collaborate on translations for real clients. Such an endeavour poses important challenges, both logistical and ethical: how can we expose students to real-world contexts without taking work away from professionals? This issue can be unwisely ignored or a source of academics’ reluctance to engage in such activities. Using original data from a recent alumni survey and semi-structured interviews, we map the outcomes of such an ethos. We ask whether engaging in real-world oriented activities as students affects the professional paths of alumni, both in the translation/interpreting industry and in other sectors

Eliminando fronteras entre el aula y el mercado laboral: fomento de la empleabilidad del estudiantado de Traducción e Interpretación

“…Así, Rodríguez de Céspedes (2017), basándose en un estudio con alumnos de Traducción e Interpretación en la Universidad de Portsmouth (Reino Unido), explica los beneficios para los alumnos cuando el foco se pone en el desarrollo de habilidades que favorezcan el emprendimiento y el aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida. En cambio, para maximizar la empleabilidad del estudiantado, Cuminatto et al (2017) apuestan por que sean los alumnos los que culminen tareas reales de traducción e interpretación, y describen las formas de canalizar los encargos de los clientes al aula, según los resultados de su exploración en la Universidad de East Anglia (Reino Unido). Schnell y Rodríguez (2017) van más allá, y sugieren que debería involucrarse a la industria de la lengua en el diseño del currículo de los estudios de Traducción e Interpretación.…”

Educating a Multilingual Workforce in Chinese universities: Employability of Master of Translation and Interpreting Graduates

“…Based on translation job descriptions and translator training programs in the Arab world, Al-Batineh and Bilali (2017) verified the seven competences put forward by Kelly (2005) from a curricular design standpoint, i.e., communicative and textual, cultural and intercultural, subject area, professional and instrumental, strategic, interpersonal, and attitudinal competences. In addition, there are other studies that cover a range of heterogeneous stakeholders of translator education and employment, consisting of institutions (see Pym, 2003;Kelly, 2005;de Céspedes, 2017;Schnell & Rodríguez, 2017), teachers (Peverati, 2013), students/graduates (CIUTI-study, 2014; Álvarez-Álvarez & Arnáiz-Uzquiza, 2017), alumni (Cuminatto et al, 2017), and translation service practitioners (Li, 2007;Katan, 2009;Rosendo & Diur, 2017).…”

“…Kelly (2005, p. 2) argued that the first stage of curricular design is to 'determine the institutional and social context in which training is to take place, and from there' formulate the learning objectives, the structure and contents of the training, the teaching approaches, and other elements of a particular discipline or program. When it comes specifically to translation education, as verified in multiple empirical studies (see PACTE, 2005PACTE, , 2008PACTE, , 2018Álvarez-Álvarez & Arnáiz-Uzquiza, 2017;Cuminatto et al, 2017;de Céspedes, 2017;Schnell & Rodríguez, 2017;Al-Batineh & Bilali, 2017), competence/employability analyses of translators that necessarily entail market and industry needs will establish the point of departure for university programs to update their curricula.…”

The Development of the Masters’ Professional Competence by Means of the Information and Communication Technologies

“…(2017)); the emergence of a larger number of ICT tools for translation and interpretation, the possession of which is required by the translation service market representatives and their inadequate implementation within the traditional professional training system of the Masters-translators (Numminen, O., Laine, T., Isoaho, H., Hupli, M., Leino-Kilpi, H., & Meretoja, R. (2014)); in the context of the needs of pedagogical science between: the expectations of the society for qualitative changes in the system of training of Masters-translators according to the world standards and insufficient theoretical rethinking of this process in the higher educational institutions (HEI) (Huang, R., Su, H., & Xu, S. (2014)); the objective need to build a scientifically proven pedagogical system for the development of the professional competence of Masters-translators by the means of ICT and the lack of the development of its methodological foundations (Robert, I. S., Remael, A., & Ureel, J. J. (2017)); world tendency for informatization of the educational process in the Magistracy and its proper consideration in the educational practice (Rahman, M. H. (2014), Cuminatto, C., Baines, R., & Drugan, J. (2017)); in the context of the needs of pedagogical practice between: dynamic development of the translation industry and imperfection of pedagogical and educational-methodical support for the development of professional competence of Masters-translators by the means of ICT (Gardulf, A., Nilsson, J., Florin, J., Leksell, J., Lepp, M., Lindholm, C., ... & Johansson, E. (2016)); the necessity to create effective pedagogical conditions to ensure the successful development of the professional competence of Masters-translators by the means of ICT and traditional approaches to the organization of theoretical and practical training of Masters-translators (Li, X.…”