At the Third International Congress on Translation and Interpreting held in Lima in late May, representatives of associations, Regional Centres, and FIT met for a roundtable discussion on initiatives to help translators and interpreters join the profession and grow.
As the moderator, I provided a brief introduction on the power of collaboration and gave the floor to our guest of honour, FIT President Alison Rodriguez. Alison presented FIT’s global reach and highlighted the importance of protecting our professions, in line with the theme chosen to celebrate International Translation Day: Translation, an art worth protecting.
María Galán, Treasurer of FIT Europe, and Mary Ann Monteagudo, Chair of FIT LatAm, provided an overview of the Regional Centres.
FIT Europe presented its continuing professional development calendar, where associations can add their education and training activities, increasing visibility and reaching wider audiences, with all relevant information available in the same place with a clear layout.
FIT LatAm highlighted its regional training program, its annual presidents’ forum, the work done by the social media team, and its institutional collaborations, all with the aim to build stronger ties in the translation, interpreting, and terminology community.
Next, association representatives came on stage to share what they’ve been up to. AATI (Argentina) described the Young Professionals and Mentoring programmes, as well as the work done in task forces on literary, scientific, and technical translation, accessibility, videogame localisation, and interpreting.
AGIT (Guatemala) stood out for its initiative to foster growth in Latin America, providing vital support to emerging associations in Central America. The result? The recent creation of a new association in El Salvador and a new chapter of AGIT in Nicaragua.
CONALTI (Venezuela) commented on its commitment to promoting professional excellence, collaborating with academia, and strengthening the value of the profession through networking with professionals and entities in the industry and being more present on social media.
COTICH (Chile) shared the interesting case of its engagement in the development of the National Policy on Books, Reading and Libraries of Chile, an initiative to promote reading, a key driver of a more equitable society.
CTP (Peru) is developing an app to enable its members to access relevant services anywhere, anytime, and presented its social responsibility programme: volunteer interpreters assist U.S. doctors as part of the Healing the Children mission.
CTPCBA (Argentina) is an independent professional council offering professional development and services to its more than 9,500 professionals, registered in more than 30 languages, who are exclusively authorised by law to certify translations with their seal and signature.
CTPPC (Argentina) promotes the value-add of the sworn translator profession, emphasising the social responsibility of members and upholding high standards of academic training and professional qualifications.
CTPU (Uruguay) presented the Tutors Project, an initiative of its Young Professionals Task Force, designed to offer new graduates guidance from more experienced colleagues.
This is only a brief summary of what is being done to give visibility to our professions and promote the membership growth.
Marita Propato, AATI & FIT LatAm
Photos: CTP media team and FIT LatAm