24th January 2018
Welcome to the Translation Business Project 2018! We are delighted to have had an excellent number of high quality applications for the project this year, as in previous years. The project is only possible as a result of the dedication and talents possessed by the staff and students at Exeter. It was wonderful to see all the participants together for the first time at the Introductory Event, where project leads Richard Mansell and Isabel Santafé gave a presentation outlining the timeline and aims of the project, as well as some handy hints and tips to succeed.
Richard started by explaining that the project – which runs from Week 1 to Week 10 – culminates with one winning group, but that everyone receives a certificate of participation. The project can also count towards the Exeter Award (details of which can be found on My Career Zone). The main aim of the project is to give students an insight into the Translation Industry and meet professional translators, gain employability skills and have a practical example that demonstrates these to employers. The project gives students the opportunity to develop skills that they would not necessarily use as part of their degrees, for example the use of advertising on social media platforms.
Students are able to view earlier examples of project outcomes on archive posts of this blog
A particularly exciting aspect of the project is the involvement of postgraduate students from the MA Translation Studies course, who act as mentors to a certain team to offer advice and guidance. It is rare to find interdisciplinary work of this nature at an undergraduate level! The other roles in the team echo those found in a real-life translation business, which is just one of the ways that the project aims to follow the workflow that has been established by international standards. The talk then moved on to a timeline of events that will be run as part of the project, including a Subtitling Workshop and the Final Gala where students will present their project to a panel of professional translators.
The project has received high praise from the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the College of Humanities, Andrew Thorpe, as well as numerous others from within the University as well as outside bodies. Exeter’s Translation Business Project is part of the INSTB (International Network of Simulated Translation Bureaus); a network of European universities which run similar projects. This year students will be asked to fill in a questionnaire from the INSTB, as they are collecting data with the aim of improving such projects around the world.
After Richard and Isabel had finished the presentation, students got into their teams in order to get to know each other and begin coming up with ideas for their company name and first steps.
“What should we call our business?”
It was an engaging and informative session that has left participants looking forward to getting stuck into their projects. We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the next session, the Subtitling Workshop on 14th February 2018!
– Miranda