PG Diploma Conference Interpreting
Postgraduate Diploma students are taught alongside MACITS students and follow two-thirds of the modules that MA students complete. The programme is suitable for those who already have some professional experience or a postgraduate qualification in translation. It focuses on conference interpreting; translation modules are optional and there is no summer project.
Why interpreting?
The increasing globalisation of international business, together with further expansion of the European Union, have made interpreting services a rapidly growing area with excellent employment opportunities for well-trained interpreters.
All of our interpreting programmes - MA Conference Interpreting and Translation Studies (MACITS) and Postgraduate Diploma in Conference Interpreting (PG Dip CI) - are designed to enable you to acquire advanced interpreting skills which you can apply in a professional capacity.
For PG Dip CI, in order to cater for the requirements of the profession, we offer two strands:
PG Dip CI
Students train to work from two foreign languages into their mother tongue. For example, if your mother tongue is English, you might work from French and German into English.
PG Dip CI - Bidirectional
Students train to work both ways between one foreign language and their mother tongue. For example, if your mother tongue is Chinese, you would work from English into Chinese and from Chinese into English.
The language combinations we offer are English plus one or two of the following: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
Students on all interpreting courses will be offered the opportunity to take part in a study visit, organised by CTS, to the European Parliament and European Commission or the UN (Geneva or Vienna). The aim of the visits is to familiarise trainee interpreters with the work of professional conference interpreters and let them try their simultaneous skills in the practice booths.
Why CTS@Leeds?
Leeds is one of only two UK universities recommended by the international professional body AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters). CTS@Leeds also receives pedagogical support from the EU's Directorates General for Interpretation. In July 2009, in recognition of the role of CTS@Leeds as a centre of excellence in the training of conference interpreters, DG Interpretation, European Parliament, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Leeds on the training of conference interpreters. Teaching is provided by a team of practising conference interpreters with considerable current experience of working for the EU institutions, the UN and other governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Within the UK, CTS@Leeds coordinates the National Network for Interpreting to combat the shortage of L1-English interpreters and develop template modules to address the shortages of strategic Asian and Middle-Eastern languages (www.nationalnetworkforinterpreting.ac.uk).
How is the programme distinctive?
A distinctive feature of the Leeds programmes in interpreting is that students of all languages train together for parts of the interpreting skills classes. From semester two onwards, students at CTS@Leeds have the unique opportunity to provide the interpretation at mock international conferences with several working languages. This may involve 'relaying' a Chinese or Japanese delegate's speech into French or Russian, for example, via the English interpretation, and vice versa. This provides invaluable experience of real working conditions at international meetings, where many varieties of English may be spoken.
The facilities at CTS@Leeds reflect the state of the art. Students have access to two conference suites equipped with single and double interpreting booths. These also make it possible to create a 'remote interpreting' scenario, where delegates and interpreters interact via a video link rather than being in the same room.
The Centre has designed a number of elective modules that are led by research and respond to the concerns of the translation industry, dealing with machine translation, the uses of corpora, technical writing, an introduction to translation technologies and an introduction to audiovisual translation. You may also take electives offered by other sections of the School of Modern Languages, by the Language Centre or by other faculties.
Non-native speakers of English can opt for a module on English for interpreters.
Career prospects
Since 2003 half of the CTS@Leeds interpreting graduates who have taken the competitive EU accreditation test have passed.
Many of our taught postgraduates progress to jobs at leading private companies, government bodies and international political organisations, such as the BBC, the UN, World Bank, WTO, SAP and major translation companies (SDL, thebigword). For more information how our graduates use their degrees to further their career, please consult the Alumni & Careers pages of this site.