Training Translators and Interpreters in the 21st Century: Theory and Practice
The past half-century has seen a phenomenal increase in the number and quality of university courses in translation and interpreting. How relevant are these courses to the practical constraints of the profession? Does a dedicated university course help translators and interpreters in their career, or is it just a rite of passage? This paper will attempt to provide some answers to those questions.
Training for translators and interpreters has evolved in the past 50 years to combine theory and practice in a way that may help what was once a cottage industry to evolve into a profession. I shall argue that translation and interpreting are life-long learning projects, and that initial training on postgraduate courses is not enough: in addition, professionals need post-experience training to aid their career development. In this paper I shall discuss ways in which this post-experience training, or continuing professional development (CPD), has been supported by collaboration between universities and professional associations such as ITI. This collaboration is not one-way: the universities need the profession as much as the profession needs universities: to provide a ‘reality check’ for academic courses, to feed back into initial training, and to develop new learning paths for the future.
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