Eight budding linguists from Tapton School in Sheffield were given the opportunity to experience life in a successful translation agency recently as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. 

The Year 9 pupils took part in the first of two ‘Try Your Hand at Translation’ events hosted by Sheffield-based company TransAction Translators.  This hands-on event was aimed at inspiring secondary school pupils that languages can open doors to many career opportunities.

The visit provided the students with an insight into life in the translation industry. They were given the chance to see Optical Character Recognition and Translation Memory software in action before trying their hand at their very own translation project.

One student, Emma, who is considering continuing with Spanish at GSCE level commented that working as a translator ‘would give you the chance to work with both language and business at the same time’.

Delphine Glize, a French and Spanish teacher and Head of Modern Languages at Tapton School was also eager to underline the importance of such events to motivate students ‘to consider the many benefits that learning a language can bring to their professional and personal lives’.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the largest global movement of entrepreneurs, with over 10 million participants worldwide, and with its motto of ‘Make a job, don’t take a job’ the scheme lends itself very nicely to the promotion of careers in freelance translation.  

This event is just one of over 4,000 taking place to celebrate and encourage entrepreneurship.  For more information on Global Entrepreneurship Week please visit http://www.gew.org.uk/

For more information on TransAction Translators please visit their website http://www.transaction.co.uk/

Pictured: Tapton School student Elsa with TransAction Project Manager Annika