Is it important to get a degree in / and an ongoing professional development in translation?

 Many of the translation community members working in the field, especially the cohort who  learned by DOING as artisans do, would not be keen to like the idea and prefer to insist of the importance of practise although it would take less time learning and acquiring those  skills if they took some initial training first. It is an ongoing discourse that has been going for ages now.In fact, all opinions are respected  and considered. It is normal that we do have multiple perspectives...but the trick is whether these differences can be synergised.

Yes, I personally think that  it is important to have  a degree in translation and YES it is also important to get professional development. I personally see resistance against this as degrading our professional status as social actors. Why shouldn't we have the same professional status like other traditional and old professions like medecine or law?; doctors themselves started their practise (in ancient times) learning by doing (hit and miss principle), but medicine developed as a profession over time and was institutionalised via education and training (social and political recognition). I guess, then, that we are following the same doomed cycle of life....we are heading there!!! it is the destiny of all types of professions....We getting there! perhaps we did already, especially that the field is now well established in academia under the name of TRANSLATION STUDIES...

Why us translators need to be always timid and lacking self esteem to make our voices heard in the community? we are doing the same social jobs like doctors and lawyers or engineers.We contribute to the well being of society and economy alike...via transferring what is not known to be known via language, creating powerful relations between nations and people via putting them together via linguistic communication...building knowledge heritage..ect. Focusing only on doing' the artisanal job' or ' doing tranlsation' or ' being skillful' is not enough.... We need to keep developing and upgrading our competencies and skills through education and training ...we need to know the technique and be able to find out senses and reflect on our proper practise to make sense of it as human beings. Professions , all of them , underwent a similar process: from learning by doing (artisan way) to theorising and institutionalising the profession...to GAINING SOCIAL RECOGNITION AND RESPECT. We cannot stay invisible and acting behind the scenes all the time.