Educational programs for interpreters

• Interpreter training in Sweden started in the late 60-ties by local immigrant services bureaus. It developed over time. The principal responsibility for interpreter and translator training, financed by the state, lies within the mandate of the Institute for Interpretation and Translation Studies (TÖI), at Stockholm University. The Institute also has the overall responsibility to develop uniform education and certification of interpreters and translators in Sweden. Basic training is delivered by four folk high schools and three adult educational associations. Since 2006 the state financed basic training is either provided as distance tuition over two years or evening classes over one year. The curriculum contains courses in the following fields: social services, medical care, the labor market, workplace and legal matters. Each course has lectures about the field, such as legal regulations, organization and structures. Each course also deals with language and interpreting training, techniques and ethics. State supervised basic training has taken place in more than 100 languages. The paper will analyze the result so far of the system that was initiated in 2006. We will describe the curriculum for the basic training: values, ethics, praxis, form, content and examination. After that we will analyze three different problem areas: 1. Issues like genus, sexual orientation, racism and other issues about fundamental values which sometimes are mainstreamed but often enough not. 2. Challenges related to the selection of languages for training. It is sometimes difficult to keep up with the very quick changes of interpreting needs that are caused by global events out of Swedish control. As we will see the agencies find all sorts of ways to meet the needs in cases where no trained community interpreters are available. 3. The theoretical and methodological framework of teaching community interpreting; the didactics of community interpreting.

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