Traducción e interpretación en los servicios públicos: formación y competencias útiles para el mercado laboral

Abstract

Public service interpreting and translation (PSIT) is a subfield of translation and interpreting. Still, it could stand independently due to the variety of subfields it encompasses and, thus, the job possibilities. Despite being considered an under-professionalised field in Spain, hundreds of graduates are interested and trained in PSIT, hoping to enhance their employment chances. However, this field relies on very few studies that focus specifically on employment, the skills that can make students employable or the graduates’ perspectives regarding the usefulness of the education and training received. This paper has three objectives: to explore the most useful skills for the PSIT labour market in Spain from the perspective of the graduates of a specific programme based on a selection of skills, to explore the potential relationship between internships and labour market insertion and to determine differences by language pairs. Results are obtained based on data gathered through a questionnaire sent to this specific training programme graduates. They show essential differences between the perception of the different language pairs in which the programme is taught, which could be correlated with other labour market needs and job opportunities. In turn, these differences also affect the usefulness of the skills that the students develop in the programme. Moreover, despite the variety of the subfields involved in the PSIT field, there is a specific relation between internships and certain jobs, especially for part of the Arabic, Chinese, French, and Russian groups graduates.

Public Service Interpreting and Translation and Employment in Spain

“…Generally, there is high applicability of both the knowledge acquired and the competences developed in their jobs. If we keep in mind Vitalaru's (2022b) study, which focuses on graduates of the same PSIT programme, these competences are linguistic competences, specialised translation (including interpreting), terminological competence, and cultural competence. This applicability, combined with the competences that the programme aims to grow (related to information mining, the adequate use of thematic, strategic, and textual knowledge in different fields and situations, and to the professional market), and the pedagogical approach used, could suggest the work-readiness of the graduates regarding the training received.…”

“…Moreover, the data we gathered came from a questionnaire that was used for all the masters and programmes taught at Universidad de Alcalá. Therefore, the questionnaire did not distinguish between different linguistic specialities and its results have not been analysed by language pair, which could have shown different market tendencies or needs, as Vitalaru (2022a and2022b) showed.…”

“…These studies demonstrate that higher education institutions must improve and/or adapt the curriculum to include more specific employability skills, add specific training in entrepreneurship (Álvarez-Álvarez and Arnáiz-Uzquiza, 2017b;Galán-Mañas, 2017;Muñoz-Miquel et al, 2020), and consider adapting training to the needs of the language pairs, as suggested by Vitalaru (2022a and2022b). Moreover, universities must work together with practitioners and/or service providers.…”