Brussels, 18/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission, keen to maintain its pool of translators at a time when many are reaching retirement age and some languages are experiencing a shortage, has decided to do all it can to maintain the supply of professionals from translator training institutes. Thus, at its conference on 16-17 March, the central theme was the creation of the European Masters in Translation (EMT) network. Over one hundred universities and other stakeholders involved in translator training took part in the event. Together they agreed the criteria to be met by training programmes to become part of a common EMT quality label.
With the multilingual communication needs of the EU and other employers continuing to grow, highly qualified translators have become vital. In order to improve translator training, the Commission, in 2005, proposed that a Masters in Translation course be set up. A first conference was held in 2006 to launch the project, then a second in 2008 laid the basis for the cooperation by proposing a standard set of key competencies within a translation study curriculum. The standard competencies can be introduced by any university which provides translator training, something strongly recommended by the Commission. This latest conference, in March 2009, gave participants the opportunity to discuss key competences, cooperation between universities in different countries, criteria for admission to the EMT network, the responsibilities of network members and the future organisation of the network, so that the desired objective may be achieved, that of training translators for a demanding profession in a constantly changing working environment. (I.L./transl.rt)