Atlas Translations: News

Atlas Newsletter – May 2008

Atlas exhibits at Museum and Heritage Show

This month Atlas visited the Museum and Heritage Show, which took place at Earl’s Court on 7th and 8th May. This event is the UK's leading trade exhibition for the world of museums, galleries and heritage visitor attractions. Its aim is to help suppliers and operators within the sector by providing them with solutions, ideas and inspiration.

Museum and Heritage Show 1

Quality Manager, Anna, was joined at the show by the rest of the Atlas team and all were available to chat with visitors interested in translation and the other services that Atlas has to offer. As part of Atlas’ exhibition, Anna did a presentation for visitors, entitled 'Tips about working with languages to include all of your local community and overseas visitors'. She says:

"It went down well and I think it drew a lot of attention to the need to have things available in other languages."

According to Work Placement Team Leader Justine, visitors showed a particular interest in which languages Atlas is able to provide translation into:

"I was asked at least five times if we were doing translation into Welsh! And some of the visitors were really impressed that we provide BSL, and Braille services."

The team thoroughly enjoyed exhibiting at the show and felt that the event was a great success. Justine commented that it was

“…a great opportunity to meet new people, make new contacts and talk about translation.”

¡Bienvenidas!

Atlas would like to wish a warm welcome to new Work Placement student, Maria. Maria is originally from Seville in Spain, where she is studying for a degree in translation and interpreting. She arrived in London after being granted an Erasmus internship to study abroad and was attracted to the idea of doing a work placement so as to gain real industry experience.

She says of her time with the company:

“So far, so good! I really like the atmosphere; everyone is very patient with me and they are willing to answer all my questions. Plus, although I have only worked for one week, I've already learnt quite a lot, so I hope to get lots of experience during the next three months. Going to the Heritage exhibition was also a good experience I could talk face to face with potential clients and convey everything that I have learnt about Atlas and its services."

Atlas would also like to welcome another newcomer to the team this month. Sara joined the team last week and will be working for Atlas on a temporary basis as a Project Manager over the next few months. Sara says:

“This is my first job related to my studies, so I am already enjoying it a lot. So far, I have had to proofread a few documents, which I enjoyed doing, seeing as I studied translation at university. I have also been shown more or less the whole process of how a translation project works and it's all very interesting.”

Writing

The language barrier

All employers know that it is easy enough to recruit a young person and teach them the sales skills or marketing techniques that they will require to carry out their job in just a few months. Any linguist will know that language skills, on the other hand, cannot be acquired in anywhere near the same timeframe.

Since learning to speak a language competently can take years, then logic (and very often the company budget) demands that businesses, which require their staff to communicate with foreign clients in their own language, recruit staff who already have a cultural competence and linguistic ability in the given language.

This means that employers are always keen to attract newcomers to the job market who, in addition to displaying the usual requirements, transferable skills and knowledge, are competent in at least one language other than their mother tongue.

Fenchurch

Nevertheless, the gap between the number of young people with foreign language skills that the UK requires and those who actually possess these skills is now putting many job seekers in Britain at a disadvantage. This is because employers who are unable to source a British candidate with adequate foreign language skills can easily hire a foreigner who speaks good English. This has a knock-on effect of putting British business at a disadvantage.

The obvious solution to this problem is for the government to encourage language learning amongst young people at every level. This can be achieved by promoting the benefits of learning a foreign language and by the introduction of schemes such as CILT’s Business Language Champions programme, which works with Education Business Partnerships and other initiatives designed to bring business into contact with young people. For further information on this scheme, please visit: www.cilt.org.uk/rln

Newsletter/Press

Atlas Translations Ltd
Anna Davies or Clare Suttie
Phone: +44 (0)20 7240 6666

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