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Tracking translator training in tools and technologies: findings of the EMT survey 2017

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2019

Abstract

Over the past quarter century, translation tools and technologies have become indispensable in the language industries, and therefore also in university programmes that train student linguists for entry into them. The two Competence Frameworks set out by the European Master's in Translation (EMT) Network (Gambier (ed.) 2009, Toudic and Krause (eds) 2017) each devote a major section to Technological Competences, and delivering them effectively to students is a key criterion for admission to the Network.

In 2012, for the EU-funded OPTIMALE project, the present authors surveyed 50 European postgraduate translator-training programmes to investigate which technological competences they were delivering and how they were doing so. In 2017 the EMT Network decided to update and re-run the 2012 survey, to track the evolution of this aspect of translator training over the intervening five-year period.

This article reports the results of this latest survey and compares them with those of its predecessor, revealing a clear trend towards greater uptake and professionalisation of tools and technologies training. While it is not possible to ascribe such positive developments solely to the EMT, it is probable that the Network has had a beneficial impact, both by strengthening relations between industry and academia, and by facilitating the exchange of good practices among programmes.