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National Occupational Standards


Languages | Interpreting | Translation | Intercultural Skills

National Occupational Standards (NOS) are statements of the skills, knowledge and understanding needed in employment. They are developed by Sector Skills Councils and Standards Setting Bodies, working in collaboration with employers, experts and stakeholders across the UK.

National Occupational Standards can be used to:

  • describe good practice in particular areas of work
  • create job descriptions and professional development plans
  • design training courses
  • form the basis of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) and Vocationally Related Qualifications (VRQs)

    • CILT, the National Centre for Languages is the UK Standards Setting Body for languages, responsible for maintaining and developing National Occupational Standards in languages for work and Standards for the specialist language professions, interpreting and translation. These have been created through a long process of consultation with language professionals and employers, and are approved by the UK regulatory authorities.

    CILT has recently developed new National Occupational Standards in intercultural skills.

    Help us raise the profile of working in languages and intercultural skills

    CILT, the National Centre for Languages is currently leading a research project mapping the functions that professional linguists (teachers, trainers, tutors, translators and interpreters) and intercultural professionals perform as part of their daily work. The result of this research will be an occupational map for languages and intercultural skills, written in language that specialists and non-specialists can understand. The aims of the map are:

    • To give an overview of the various roles within languages and intercultural skills and to outline their complexities and the overlaps between them.
    • To include, if possible, informal translation and interpreting.
    • To supply information to aid career progression.
    • To act as a baseline for comparative research at future intervals to monitor changes in the sector.

    The occupational map is intended to be used by CILT, other standards setting bodies, the careers service and professional associations

    • To enable contextualisation of training, advice and guidance for the different occupations covered by the map.
    • To promote careers with languages and intercultural skills
    • As a tool to outline progression routes and careers.
    • To reinforce the message that training and assessment can be a good thing for everyone, not just the professionals.

     

    To find out about nationally recognised qualifications based on the Standards, go to our Qualifications page.

    For guidance on careers in interpreting and translating, see Languages Work.

    To find out more about UK National Occupational Standards, visit www.ukstandards.org.uk.