Do We Need a Translation Degree to Work? The Canadian Context

A colleague on a LinkedIn professional forum asked whether translators really need a degree to work. Here is what I answered, drawing on the Canadian context.

Original thread: http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem

How Canada trains translators

Canada has a long tradition in both translation practice and translator training. The Federal Government's Translation Bureau is the largest recruiter in the country, and a BA in Translation is compulsory for recruitment. Why? Because the four-year university programme follows a rigorous and practical process. In Canada you may take a 'co-op' BA, which includes paid internships over about three years, or a traditional BA with content in linguistics, translation theory and practice and translation technologies, but no fieldwork. Co-op students gain experience in the field, in companies and agencies, and get paid for it.

Degrees and professional status

My second point concerns the value of taking degrees and pursuing professional development. I see resistance to this as degrading our professional status as social actors. Why should we not have the same standing as older, traditional professions such as medicine or law? Doctors, too, once learnt by doing, on a hit-and-miss principle, but their practice developed into a profession over time and was institutionalised through education and training, with the social and political recognition that follows. Why must translators always be timid and lacking in self-esteem when it comes to making our voices heard? We do social work of the same importance as doctors, lawyers or engineers. Acquiring disciplinary knowledge and staying informed matters for our lifelong learning and for our social status.

Our contribution deserves recognition

We make the unknown known through language, build powerful relations between nations and peoples through linguistic communication, and build a heritage of knowledge. This is serious. It is not only about producing excellent translations and keeping clients. That is good, but it is not the end of the story. We need to look at our profession from various angles, and we need education at a higher level alongside 'the artisanal job'.

All professions go through the same process: from learning by doing, the artisan's way, to theorising and institutionalising the profession, and finally to gaining social recognition and respect. We cannot stay invisible and go on acting behind the scenes. We need to act. We need a metalanguage for talking about our work and our profession, one we can develop in professional and academic training contexts and, above all, by taking part in conferences and symposia on translation, just as we do here on LinkedIn as an online community.