Program summary
The Foundations in Dialogue Interpreting course is Université Sainte-Anne’s first micro-credentialled class, and covers the fundamentals of Interpretation, with an emphasis on practical experience. Lectures are supplemented with topical discussions, homework and regular feedback, a component on industry ethics, along with presentations, role play and simulations rooted in real-world situations. This pilot program began Feb. 22, 2021, and ends in May 2021.
Admission requirements
The inaugural course in Interpretation is open to members of the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia, or those residing in Atlantic Canada who are looking for further training in the field (later courses will be open to all). As a high level of French is required for this course – with some work in English – anyone wishing to take this class must have a strong command of both of Canada’s official languages, and have already successfully completed the ILSAT or CILISAT language exam in English and French with a minimum of 75 per cent.
For anyone who would like more information about the ILSAT, please contact Access Language Services (HR@accesslanguages.ca). ALS is a test centre and administers the test in its offices, for a fee of $200.
To successfully complete this course and earn a micro-accreditation and digital badge, students must attain a minimum grade of 70 per cent. The final mark will be based on homework, presentations, role play, simulations and attendance. As regular attendance will be necessary, after two absences a point will be deducted for each class missed.
Program length
This 10-week, 60-hour program is offered online twice per week – two hours per class – using the Microsoft Teams platform. Forty hours are devoted to in-class work, and 20 hours (two per week) are for individual work and teacher feedback. This course is a prerequisite for affiliated Interpretation classes that will later be added. The fee for subsequent courses will be determined at that time.
Equity and diversity
This program promotes enhanced employment prospects for newcomers, under-represented groups, and both mid-career and older workers seeking career change, skill upgrades or retraining.
Industry partners
– The Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia (ATINS)
– Access Language Services, the leading provider of interpretation services in Nova Scotia
– Alliance Française Halifax, an association dedicated to the promotion of the French language.
Project Highlights
A group of three women approached Université Sainte-Anne a few years ago with a vision – to help create a program to respond to the critical needs of the interpretation profession, especially in the Atlantic region.
The goal was to provide a course that was relevant, practical, quicker and less expensive than a traditional university course. Sainte-Anne was able to pair that with its inaugural offering in micro-certification and in February 2021, with the key support of these members of our working advisory committee, Atlantic Colleges Atlantique and Future Skills Canada, the school offered its first such course, Foundations in Dialogue Interpreting.
Ten students completed the online pilot project, and as a result of that initial interest, a second course was offered that fall.
Since then, the university has been able to create a new course, in Medical interpretation, which began in September 2022, with plans for a third one covering the judiciary for Fall 2023.
The roots for the program’s relevancy can be traced back to that committed trio of volunteers. One is an immigrant and professional interpreter, former president of the local industry association and owner of the largest translation and interpretive company in the province. Another just finished a term as president of the Nova Scotia industry group and is now president of the Canadian association of translators and terminologists. The third professional is head of the local chapter of an international language school.
For the new medical course, three organizations with strong connections to provincial and national health care were also added as partners. In many ways, we have been able to double up on resources, as some of these partners already work together or have overarching aims, allowing all of us to share and benefit from this commonality of purpose. This pooling of extraordinary talent, ideas and commitment has become the template for our courses.
Having a working advisory group comprised of minorities helps ensure that we can target a plethora of needs. Through their foresight, we have been able to put some money aside for bursaries to aid those who may have fiscal or other challenges and thus help us retain students.
Our committee outlined the criteria required to attract working interpreters or those with the necessary language skills who could begin a career in the field or switch mid-career. Their proactive approach was based on work-informed insights. Having a nationally respected interpreter who previously worked for the New Brunswick government as our course designer and teacher was also a great help, as he could focus on local needs yet also include tricks of the trade from his work across the country. He has also identified a student and respected local professor who can help give courses in the future.
As Sainte-Anne continues to add courses to its Interpretation program and strives to offer as much flexibility as possible, student feedback enables us to hone in on their needs. Previous studies of professional challenges have allowed us to incorporate many changes.
Most of our students work full-time, so we offer part-time classes that they can fit around their schedules. Since a condensed course demands academic rigour, work-specific role-plays and simulations, we have made regular attendance part of the mark. We also require a minimum grade of 70 per cent to obtain a micro-certification.
In 2022, Sainte-Anne did a follow-up survey with students who had taken Foundations, our first course in Interpretation. The program focused on the basics as well as challenges the industry faces today, such as a lack of quality training programs, a dearth of young workers and a corresponding need to engage a new generation, and how the pandemic has increased demands, especially in the medical domain.
As most of our students make their living in the profession, their input aided us greatly in preparing a second course, Medical interpretation.
In general, the responses to the research questions showed that our students – who are all from equity-seeking groups – found taking an online micro-credentialled course more accessible, convenient, quicker and cheaper than a traditional university program. Working in a domain that often involves immigrants or clients from different linguistic and international backgrounds, interpreters have a passion and understanding of the importance of their job. Perhaps it also involves a desire to help others because many of them have lived through similar circumstances.
As the level of immigration has increased, the number of qualified interpreters available to provide essential linguistic services to them for a multitude of everyday needs has stagnated.
Micro-credentials offer increased training in less time. Online courses also offer a key feature – accessibility. The flexibility of a shorter, practical course that any qualified student in Canada with decent Internet can take – whether in an isolated community, facing mobility, financial or other challenges – has made learning much more inclusive. For those working or just getting off work and not having time to drive an hour for a course in a snowstorm, it also offers practicality.
Being able to do that during a global pandemic that shuttered the bricks-and-mortar forms of many schools and businesses was greatly appreciated by our students, especially as an expensive, full-time course that lasts a few years would not be feasible for most of them.
The opportunity to take a course online was rated the most attractive factor in their decision to enrol with Université Sainte-Anne. Being able to do so at a post-secondary institution with a teacher highly respected in the domain were two other advantages mentioned, which ties into credibility of credentials and micro-certification. The professor’s understanding of their workload schedules and the shorter nature of micro-credentials makes studying easier.
As the only francophone university in Nova Scotia, Sainte-Anne has been promoting language rights since its inception. As most interpreters are from equity groups, when we implemented a program geared toward those who work with immigrants and linguistic minorities, the recruitment group naturally fell under this demographic, because this is who interpreters are.
Program Summary
Foundations in Dialogue Interpreting was the first micro-certified course at Université Sainte-Anne, and it covers the fundamentals of interpretation with an emphasis on practical experience. The lectures are supplemented by discussions, assignments, regular feedback, a component on industry ethics as well as lectures, role plays and simulations based on realistic situations.
The pilot course began in February 2021, and a second cohort has already been offered, prior to the creation of a new affiliated course in medical interpreting that began in September 2022 with students from the base course. In the fall of 2023, we want to add a third pillar, court interpreting. The goal is to start with a fixed schedule in 2024 for all three courses.
Eligibility and Prerequisites
The program is open to members of the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia, and Canadians seeking further training in this field, with a focus on the Atlantic region. Foundations in Dialogue Interpreting is the prerequisite for other courses.
Successful completion of the ILSAT or CILISAT exams with a minimum of 75 per cent in English and French is required to take this program.
Course length
The Foundations course is 60 hours and is offered online twice a week – two hours per class – using the Microsoft Teams platform. Forty hours are devoted to class work, and 20 hours for individual work and instructor feedback.
Medical Interpreting, is a 40-hour course.
Equity and diversity
This program promotes enhanced employment prospects for newcomers, under-represented groups, and both mid-career and older workers seeking career change, skill upgrades or retraining. Our goal is to provide a service to interpreters in the region to help overcome the lack of professionals and young workers in this important profession.
Industry partners (since the beginning)
– The Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia (ATINS)
– Access Language Services, the leading provider of interpretation services in Nova Scotia
– Alliance Française Halifax, an association dedicated to the promotion of the French language.
* For more information, please consult our webpage at Continuing Education at Sainte-Anne (usainteanne.ca)
(From 2022 anonymous survey)
Perhaps the greatest challenge is attracting young workers, to ensure its renewal and continuity. A student, in the 15-29 demographic said more publicity and training programs are needed, so young learners can acquire and more comfortably practise needed skills:
‘’I think there is definitely room to promote interpretation as a profession for young students in the Atlantic provinces. It is a rewarding potential part-time job for university students. I think that a big issue is simply awareness, where most bilingual people do not know about the opportunities when it comes to interpretation.’’
‘’I think that with interpretation courses becoming more available, this offers a low-risk environment where they can try themselves at interpretation. I find that for those who have never interpreted before, practicing themselves with like-minded people in a classroom setting would be more appealing than being proverbially “thrown into the fire.”
A lack of awareness at the school level in this region compounds the situation.
‘’I believe that a big problem when it comes to attracting young people to interpretation is a lack of awareness. To my knowledge, before the Saint-Anne course there were not any classes on the topic in the Maritimes. Unlike other professions, we never had anyone visit our French high schools to talk about interpretation as a job. I think that simply having a course available gives the field some legitimacy and helps raise awareness for the field.’’
‘’Another problem that I noticed is that since we live in a province where French is a minority language, some people my age are not comfortable speaking in public/being in a hospital setting interpreting, which some can find daunting at first. This can be a big barrier to people entering the field as they might not feel confident enough to try interpretation out without any training.’’
A classmate who works full-time as an interpreter, also raised the problem of attracting those in a younger demographic and offered a remedy.
‘’I think there should be an investment. I think we need a greater awareness or a campaign of awareness among the public and youth, to let them know there are career possibilities in the profession for those who have French-language capabilities, that it is possible. We need to attract more people from Generation Z to Millennials to Generation X.
‘’My soapbox is that the Boomers – who made up the big majority of interpreters for years – are retiring or dying and there is no succession in the profession. The problem is sort of generational. That’s why there is such a shortage, especially in Atlantic Canada.’’
Because micro-certified courses are shorter than a regular university class, they are more accessible and less daunting. Although they are by necessity rigorous and require regular testing to ensure their validity, a student with a learning disability noted they are more appealing, especially when returning to education after a long time away from university:
‘’Having micro-credentials speaks to my personality and my boundaries, where I think it is definitely something that I gravitate towards more than maybe a full-time course. You lose confidence in your abilities, even though you may have done a university course when you were 20, being out of that style so long, even things you acquired.’’
In another part of the survey, a second student also mentioned having similar learning problems at university and while trying to gain employment, and said the teacher’s comprehension while taking the interpretation course through Sainte-Anne was greatly appreciated.
The program helped change our students perceptions about post-secondary education. Here is just a sampling from three adult learners:
– ‘’It really changed my perceptions because now I know it is possible to take a micro-credentialled course with an Atlantic college or university. It takes much less time and also much less money (than a normal university course). Courses like this are capable of providing us with appropriate training and advanced skills that, in the past, we had to try to obtain in another way.’’
– ‘’There is more flexibility with shorter courses that can give you micro-certification. Also, it’s great to have online options. Especially if you’re working at the same time and can’t commit to commuting and going to university more than four hours a week, online is really a great option.’’
– ‘’As a full-time student, I am used to taking lengthy courses as part of my program over a three-month semester. I find that while my courses are interesting, they do not always have clear practical applications. The micro-accreditation course I found was a concise but also thorough way of gaining practical knowledge regarding a profession. I also found that the format of the class being in (early evenings) separate from the rest of my schooling worked well.’’
One working interpreter said a myriad of factors led to their support for the course and the program, adding this will help those in the profession in a number of ways:
‘’It was given by a local French university, the person who taught the class and created and devised the program is somebody who I highly admire and has proven to be an excellent teacher and program creator as well. Also, the tuition, it was a subsidized program. The fact that I supported it myself – that we were looking to create and give courses locally. It was also a program supported by the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia. And this is the certifying body. It was also supported by the service provider in terms of agency, in terms of recruiting. So, it had the professional association, the academic partners, and it also had employers involved in this project.
‘’Grateful for Sainte-Anne for taking the initiative and the lead in creating these micro-credentials in interpretation. The Atlantic provinces have seen increasing numbers of newcomers recently. Funding and creating quality and university-accredited interpretation courses locally is very much needed. Providing interpretation through qualified interpreters will streamline the immigration process, help newcomers easily integrate to their new-home country and have a better understanding of the new culture and laws.’’
Another person who makes their living in the field said such courses geared for workers are rare, and also ensure they don’t have to spend their lives in school.
‘’In the sense that I saw that there were possibilities to take courses during times that fit with my professional schedule. I don’t want to spend all my life taking courses full-time, so the (part-time Sainte-Anne) course works well with my professional needs.’’
Another interpreter said they were thrilled when this course came along.
‘’In the sense that I found it very practical, that was the idea … it was very skills-based and real-world based. It was something I appreciated about this, and it was important to feel that at this particular point in your career, something that can be applied … to what you’re doing.’’
‘’It’s almost magical when you can provide services in the first language of a patient in hospital.’’
– ‘’I believe that a big problem when it comes to attracting young people to interpretation is a lack of awareness. To my knowledge, before the Saint-Anne course there were not any classes on the topic in the Maritimes. Unlike other professions, we never had anyone visit our French high schools to talk about interpretation as a job. I think that simply having a course available gives the field some legitimacy and helps raise awareness for the field.’’
– ‘’I think that with interpretation courses becoming more available, this offers a low-risk environment where they can try themselves at interpretation. I find that for those who have never interpreted before, practicing themselves with like-minded people in a classroom setting would be more appealing than being proverbially thrown into the fire.’ ‘’
– ‘’I think there should be an investment I think we need a greater awareness or a campaign of awareness among the public and youth, to let them know there are career possibilities in the profession for those who have French-language capabilities, that it is possible. We need to attract more people from Generation Z to Millennials to Generation X. My soapbox is that the Boomers – who made up the big majority of interpreters for years – are retiring or dying and there is no succession in the profession. The problem is sort of generational. That’s why there is such a shortage, especially in Atlantic Canada.’’
– ‘’Having micro-credentials speaks to my personality and my boundaries, where I think it is definitely something that I gravitate towards more than maybe a full-time course. You lose confidence in your abilities, even though you may have done a university course when you were 20, being out of that style so long, even things you acquired.’’
– ‘’This really changed my perceptions because now I know it is possible to take a micro-credentialled course with an Atlantic college or university. It takes much less time and also much less money (than a normal university course). Courses like this are capable of providing us with appropriate training and advanced skills that, in the past, we had to try to obtain in another way.’’
– ‘’There is more flexibility with shorter courses that can give you micro-certification. Also, it’s great to have online options. Especially if you’re working at the same time and can’t commit to commuting and going to university more than four hours a week.’’
– ‘’As a full-time student, I am used to taking lengthy courses as part of my program over a three-month semester. I find that while my courses are interesting, they do not always have clear practical applications. The micro-accreditation course I found was a concise but also thorough way of gaining practical knowledge regarding a profession. I also found that the format of the class being in (early evenings) separate from the rest of my schooling worked well.’’
– ‘’It was given by a local French university, the person who taught the class and created and devised the program is somebody who I highly admire and has proven to be an excellent teacher and program creator as well. Also, the tuition, it was a subsidized program. The fact that I supported it myself – that we were looking to create and give courses locally. It was also a program supported by the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia. And this is the certifying body. It was also supported by the service provider in terms of agency, in terms of recruiting. So, it had the professional association, the academic partners, and it also had employers involved in this project.
– ‘’Grateful for Sainte-Anne for taking the initiative and the lead in creating these micro-credentials in interpretation. The Atlantic provinces have seen increasing numbers of newcomers recently. Funding and creating quality and university-accredited interpretation courses locally is very much needed. Providing interpretation through qualified interpreters will streamline the immigration process, help newcomers easily integrate to their new-home country and have a better understanding of the new culture and laws.’’
– ‘’In the sense that I saw that there were possibilities to take courses during times that fit with my professional schedule. I don’t want to spend all my life taking courses full-time, so the (part-time Sainte-Anne) course works well with my professional needs.’’
‘’In the sense that I found it very practical, that was the idea … it was very skills-based and real-world based. It was something I appreciated about this, and it was important to feel that at this particular point in your career, something that can be applied … to what you’re doing.’’
The idea of a course in medical interpretation was also well-received, before it began in Fall ‘22.
– ‘’It’s almost magical when you can provide services in the first language of a patient in hospital.’’