Academia Responds to Growth in Language Services

The language services market will be worth $38.16 billion in 2015, clocking in a 6.46% annual growth rate. The language industry is growing, and some academic institutions are responding to the increasing translation demand.

The Goethe Institute in Cairo, Egypt, inaugurated a new language center that will begin teaching German language courses on September 27, 2015. The new center situated at the Higher Institute of Languages ​​and Translation in the Culture and Science City, began accepting registration for this semester’s courses mid-August.

Meanwhile, the University of Bath’s Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies will begin offering a new one-year programme on September 2016: the MA Translation with Business Interpreting (Chinese). The programme is “a one-year, full-time programme which develops specialist translation and interpreting skills, working in both Chinese and English. It is open to students whose first language is Chinese or English, and who have an existing high level of competence in the other language.”

The programme’s focus is business translation, though students will be trained to provide specialist language services in various contexts. The programme also involves teaching students about current translation management technology as well as suitable enterprise skills. The new one-year MA begins accepting students on November 2015.

In the US, a new certificate program offered by the Department of World Languages and Cultures in the IU School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis aims to specifically address the growing need for more translation professionals. The new Graduate Certificate in Translation Studies will begin in 2016, but it is already accepting applications.

“Globalization of business, law and trade relations and changing U.S. demographics have increased demand for translation skills in many fields, especially educational, medical, legal and technical,” an article in the Indianapolis Recorder states, noting that “Bureau of Labor Statistics has indicated that employment of interpreters and translators is projected to grow 46 percent from 2012 to 2022, much faster than the average for all occupations.”