National Occupational Standards in Interpreting 2006-2010

1. National Occupational Standardsin Interpreting2006-2010 Anne Marie Graham, Head of Skills, Business and Adult Learning, CILT, the National Centre for Languages annemarie.graham@cilt.org.uk

2. UK Occupational Standards • Funded by UK Government • Define what an individual needs to know and do in order to carry out a job role • Over 50,000 occupations covered -from accountancy to zookeeping • Form the basis of vocational and professional qualifications

3. CILT’s Occupational Standards • Recognised standard setting body for: • Languages in the workplace • Translation • Interpreting • Intercultural working

4. Interpreting standards • Designed by the profession, for the profession • Consultation with practitioners, trainers and employers – these are the users of the standards • Not language specific, focus on skills and competence

5. Structure of the standards • Divided into units • Two levels of performance: professional and advanced professional • Proposed 3rd level – trainee/apprentice under consultation

6. Why have standards? • to professionalise the profession • to provide a clear guide to the occupation for service users and practitioners alike • to inform HR and continuous professional development for the profession

7. Why use the Standards? • To inform training and development plans • to inform training programmes and syllabii. • to form the basis of vocational and professional qualifications, e.g. DPSI

8. Why change the standards? • Not an amendment, but an increment - to add an introductory/progression, level to the Standards • Research with interpreting employers and other key figures in the profession showed a lack of progression routes available to those who were considering a career in interpreting • Sign language interpreters already have this progression level in their career path, but can’t be mapped to a non-existent Standard • http://www.cilt.org.uk/home/standards_and_qualifications/qualifications_strategy.aspx

9. Issues considered • What we call that progression level? Trainee? • Should there be a time limit on achieving the qualification? • What do we include in the skills and competences at this level? • What level of language should they have? • Should they have access to a mentor? • How can an interpreter at this level best reflect on and develop their skills further?

10. Next steps • The latest version has been submitted to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, who funded the development • Once approved, the Standards will be available for awarding bodies and training providers to develop qualifications and training courses • Comments on the standards are still welcome and can be incorporated in any future reviews

11. Next steps • New units can support other standards setting organisations and awardign bodies with qualification development • eg • isign project proposed by Signature to develop an initial training qualification, Certificate in Learning Support (communication worker) at Level 3