The Initial Training for Newcomers to Translation

These are programs aimed at regular students who wish to become interpreters or translators through a formal training program. Although many of them already have some professional experience, they accept both beginner status in the course and a considerable investment of time. In most of the major schools of interpreting and translation in the West, which, incidentally, are part of or associated with universities, and mostly at postgraduate level, programs last 2 to 4 years of full-time study (generally 2 years at graduate level or 3 to 4 years at undergraduate level). There are also some shorter programs, such as an intensive 6-month syllabus in conference interpreting at the University of Ottawa, 6-month in-house training programs in conference interpreting at the United Nations and at the Commission of the European Community, and one-year programs in some universities, but the vast majority of programs with a solid reputation extend over two to four years.

In such programs, students are involved full-time in training over a relatively long period and are therefore in a position to devote considerable time and effort to all four components of qualification (although officially, many schools refuse to deal with linguistic components, which supposedly have been mastered before admission).