A crisis is looming in the translation industry; demand for translation is booming, but the supply of qualified translators is not keeping pace with demand.
The Translation Directorate of the European Commission, reports that for them guaranteeing quality services in some languages is becoming a source of serious concern as many experienced translators are now retiring and that finding good replacements is not easy.
So it would seem that a career as a translator is a good choice for guaranteeing employment in the tough years ahead.
However, a new phenomenon has appeared recently which might throw a little doubt on that certainty. Community translation or ‘crowdsourcing’ is translation for free or for very low pay by the wider online community and this could pose a threat to translators, especially in the field of social networking.
But Dawn Smith, Managing Editor of the Final Word believes this will not be a threat for properly qualified personnel :
“Here at the Final Word we know that for top quality translations we can trust we need highly qualified translators. Merely speaking a language doesn’t make you a translator. Expertise and quality controls are needed for guaranteed first class translations. There is indeed a bright future for well qualified translators, especially in specialist fields.”