Professional Accessible community interpreting – a gateway to migrant integration Erasmus Project

Project Title

Professional Accessible community interpreting – a gateway to migrant integration

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

The Erasmus+ Key Action Strategic Partnership Programme PACI – Professional and Accessible Community Interpreting: A Gateway to Migrant’s Integration. The project involves a unique pioneering approach to providing sustainable training in Public service Interpreting and Translation (PSIT) for Languages of Lesser Diffusion (LLD’s). The project’s primary goal is to develop a didactic model for PSIT training.
Based on the concept of blended learning, PACI’s didactic model requires students to combine (independent) online learning with onsite training. The learning objectives and materials in PACI’s PSIT module are in line with market needs related to the provision of PSIT services in the partner countries. Given the great demand for professional training of PSITs in languages of limited diffusion (LLD’s), the three Central European university partners – i.e. the Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia), Palacký University Olomouc (the Czech Republic), and the University of Wrocław (Poland) – decided to join forces with the Department of Linguistics & Literary Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). VUB has many years of experience in training translation and interpreting students, on the one hand, and in offering courses on terminology and translation/interpreting technologies, on the other hand.
Since each partner individually cannot address all aspects and competencies considered necessary for PSIT training in the respective language combinations (Polish – Dutch; Czech – Dutch and Slovak – Dutch), the project benefited from a supranational partnership within the Erasmus+ framework. Each project partner contributes its own expertise to the development of PACI’s didactic model. The Comenius University of Bratislava initiated the PACI partnership. The university has a long tradition of providing translation training to students enrolled in its Dutch studies curriculum.
The PACI didactic model – available in Dutch and English – can serve as a template model in PSIT professional training for other language combinations. It is currently offered as a separate PSIT training module within the existing university curricula of the Philology Departments in the two Central European universities in Poland and the Czech Republic, and a professionalization track within the translation studies curriculum of the Comenius University in Bratislava.
The intellectual outputs of the project use the latest PSIT techniques in practice, contain innovative digital learning materials such as e-learning courses in 4 areas: translation in public services, interpretation in public services, language technologies in PSIT, and ethical and institutional aspects of PSIT. The courses are directly related to the requirements of the EMT (European Masters in Translation) and reflect the recommendations of process organizations in the field of PSIT (ENPSIT – European Network of Public Service Translators and Interpreters). In addition to basic theoretical knowledge in the field of translation and interpretation relevant to PSIT, students are acquainted with an overview of technologies of computer-assisted translation, machine translation, corpus tools for searching terminology. Role exercises and practical translation studios during the training week support the development of practical translation and interpreting skills and the ability to solve ethical dilemmas. A Didactic handbook: Framework structure PACI – Professional and Accessible Community Interpreting: a Gateway to Migrant Integration. Handbook for users of the training model will make it easier for those interested in using this educational model to implement it in a specific educational institution. Our Monograph – Training of Interpreters and Translators in Public Services: A European Perspective provides an overview of current PSIT research and current studies on the state of PSIT in Central European countries compared to countries with well-developed PSIT systems (Belgium, Spain, Austria) as examples of good practice.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 216214,11 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERZITA KOMENSKEHO V BRATISLAVE & Country: SK

Project Partners

• VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL
• UNIVERZITA PALACKEHO V OLOMOUCI
• UNIWERSYTET WROCLAWSKI