If you’re going to go off the beaten path, you have to be willing to push and be pushed beyond your limits.
Two years ago, when we began to develop MCIS’ Translator Training Program, we were building the program from scratch out of an idea: we wanted to provide equal access to training to translators of every language, because we want to ensure that every language community has access to critical information and services through high quality translation.
With the support of an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant, we began the arduous process of developing the curriculum. The first year of the Grant was spent collecting data, surveying stakeholders in the Translation Industry, identifying gaps in existing programs, and developing the training program’s 40 modules. None of it would have been possible without Victoria Radvan, our Training Content Developer, whose speed and dedication to quality were the drivers of our success.
A year later, on March 21, 2017, MCIS offered it’s very first Translation Training. Despite the countless times we had reviewed all the handouts, lesson plans, and Power Points, my colleagues and I arrived on the first day anxious – full of nerves and excitment. Would they like the program? Would they like us? Can we pull it off? Are we really doing this?!
But guess what! We did. And we are still going strong.
As I write this, it is 9:30 PM on a Thursday night in March. If you’re familiar with our schedule, you know Tuesdays and Thursdays are quite busy for the Translator Training team. I’ve just finished teaching Module 35 to our latest cohort of students, and they are now only 5 modules away from finishing the program!
I reflect on the last year where we got to see our content in action. I’ve spent the year being surrounded by the most wonderful, intelligent, energetic and passionate group of facilitators. I have never seen such dedication to each trainee’s education, and commitment to ensuring that all the content in the lesson plans assigned to them is understood and to add their own “flavour” to each lesson. Every cohort of trainees has bitten into the content with such eagerness that it is astounding! This year has also brought on partnerships with the University of Strasbourg, and the program has been accepted for 120 Professional Development Units with the Ontario Council for Community Interpreting.
After every cohort of students, there is always something we want to improve: further developing our lesson plans, taking the course online, and (to our students’ delight) trimming down our infamous glossary. I think this striving for perfection must be a Translator thing.
But, along the way, there has been no shortage of love, passion, sweat and tears poured into this training program, not only by staff, but also our content developers, E-Learning developers, facilitators, and most importantly: the trainees. Our students are the heart of this program, and make every early morning, every long meeting, the occasional 7-day work week, and every late night out of the office worth it.
To our trainees: you make every mountain climbable.
Onward and upward for the program’s third year!
To learn more about the training, or to register, CLICK HERE!
Gabriela Rodas
MCIS Training Manager