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Gateways scheme leads the way for translation graduates
(23/04/08)

The Gateways into Languages graduate placement programme celebrated its launch last night at the Institute of Engineering and Technology on London’s Savoy place. The event celebrated the success of the pilot phase of the DIUS-funded programme, which aims to improve the employability of students graduating from postgraduate translation courses through work placements in translation companies.

CILT took part in the project in partnership with the Association of Translation Companies, five ATC member companies and six higher education institutions.

The pilot phase of the programme demonstrated that a successful partnership between employers and HE institutions can produce excellent results, in this case by improving the work readiness of students and raising their awareness of how the industry works through first hand experience.

Three of the nine students who took part in the pilot programme have been offered jobs in their host companies, with others going onto work as freelance translators, showing that the scheme can also work as a feeder programme into the translation industry. The project has so far proved so successful that it has received extra funding from DIUS to develop the partnership further across England.

The launch was attended by students, employers and universities already taking part in the project, along with representatives from other translation companies, who had the chance to see for themselves the benefits of the scheme. Speeches came from Lord Dearing; Anne Davidson Lund, CILT’s Director of Policy Research, Research & Information; and Helen Eckersley, Chair of education council of ATC, and Director of International Translation Resources (ITR), one of the employers who took part in the scheme.

'Internships or work placements can be treated as an extended interview,’ Helen Eckersley said. ‘They are a fine opportunity to thoroughly assess whether a candidate would be a good fit for the organisation'

One student said: ‘My placement has been a brilliant experience. I have been given the opportunity to undertake a wide variety of tasks and feel that this experience will be a real asset to my CV.’

To find out more about the Gateways into Languages programme, contact CILT’s Skills and Qualifications Adviser, Anne Marie Graham.