For the 12th consecutive year, the Languages and Intercultural Studies department has held its annual Starting Work as a Translator or Interpreter event, co-organised by Fanny Chouc (LINCS) and Camrie Hole (Career Services).
This event, initially launched in 2011, ran successfully online during the pandemic, and drawing from the experience, it was adapted this year to combine the best of both modes: a series of informative and insightful talks were held online and were open to all, and it was followed by a networking event on campus, exclusively for Heriot-Watt’s students and alumni.
The aim of SWATI has always been to bring together industry representatives, practitioners and professional bodies, to give prospective translators and interpreters a more thorough understanding of their chosen industry and enable them to get valuable advice from professionals on how to get started.
This year’s line-up featured Morag Neath, the Head of the English booths at the European Commission, Fraser Brown, one of the project managers from Global Language Services (who catered for all language services for COP26), but also talented alumni and conference interpreters Roxane Schüller-Green and Rebecca Ritchie, translation project manager Daniel McLeod and freelance translator Bex Elder.
Over 330 people joined the online talks and were able to ask questions from our distinguished panellists, showing that the interest in multilingual communication remains strong and relevant in our globally connected, multicultural world.
The follow-on networking event took place in the Carnegie Lounge, offering a friendly environment for discussions with our additional guests Vineet Lal, experienced literary translator and regular Book Festival contributor, Eleonore Walper, who has worked in many sectors as a translator and interpreters, Sophie Adlington, in-house financial translator with EVS and Ramon Inglada, Convenor of ITI Scotnet. Panellists Roxane Schüller-Green and Daniel McLeod were also able to join in person.
Participants valued hearing about the many “ways that they can boost their experience and CV”, praising the “diversity of invited speakers” and deeming the whole event “great”. LINCS and Career Services are already looking towards planning SWATI 2024, and hope to reach even more budding expert linguists.