Educational Partnerships Matter in Language Services

Education should never happen in a vacuum no matter what students are learning, and this is especially true for language services. Below, we emphasize a few reasons why.

Three Benefits of Educational Partnerships In Language Services

Gaining Language Technology Proficiency

Advanced technologies have revolutionized the language services industry which went from rule-based (RBMT) to statistical (SMT) to neural machine translation (NMT) in just a few decades.

The industry is also heavily invested in computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, content management systems (CMS), Translation Management Systems (TMS), automated translation memories, glossaries, remote interpreting technology, and more. Specialized language technology facilitates greater efficiency, enhances translation accuracy, and lowers overall cost. In fact, language technology is so central to the industry that newly graduated students readying to enter the field should be well-versed with hands-on experience—but that requires appropriate technology-infused instructional practices and industry collaboration.

By partnering with educational institutions that offer translation and interpreting degrees, LSP leaders can collaborate with educational leaders to help ensure the curriculum includes the most relevant technologies the industry uses. Some LSPs might even be in a position to provide funding for language technology while others might work on developing successful internships.

No matter your level or type of involvement, however, when you provide educational leaders with industry-relevant feedback and guidance regarding language technology, everyone wins.

Supporting Our Diverse Society

Whether students intend to work as interpreters, translators, or localization specialists, their work within language services supports our society as a whole—a society that is growing more diverse every year.

When LSPs partner with educational institutions, they not only elevate their own reputation but they raise the bar for the industry as a whole. They set higher standards and demonstrate their true commitment to—and respect for—the 26,000 individuals in the United States alone, with limited-English proficiency.

Developing and Strengthening Soft Skills

Soft skills are critical to a student’s future success in language services.

The language services industry is not only highly collaborative, involving cross-functional and cross-departmental coordination, but it also involves a great deal of direct contact with external stakeholders.

Internships provide students with the opportunity to develop and fine-tune their communication and diplomatic skills. Through these strategic partnerships, students have the ability to collaborate with a wide array of language services professionals, from translators and interpreters to project managers, editors, proofreaders, and localization engineers. Depending on the internship, they might also gain invaluable experience working directly with buyers (and recipients) of language services.

Everyone Wins with Educational Partnerships

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the “average conversion rate for interns climbed by nearly 20%—jumping from 55.5% reported [in 2020] to 66.4% [in 2021]… Employers taking part in the survey reported extending offers to nearly 80% of their eligible interns.”

Data Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)¹

As Semantic Scholar puts it,

Internships enable students to acquire skills, which cannot be learned in the classroom environment, while employers obtain access to low-cost [labor] and reduced recruitment costs… Interns develop interpersonal skills, team-working skills, professionalism and customer management experience.”²

Interested in more information on successful partnerships? Want to shine a spotlight on your unique educational partnership?

GIM can help.

Committed to Promoting Educational Partnerships

Not only does GIM have extensive experience conducting research on successful partnerships within language services, but we are passionate about connecting students to real-life experiences. If you are an LSP or an educational institution looking to create a partnership—or if you already have a successful partnership you’d like to promote—please complete the form below.

Talk to us today about what your partnership goals are or what benefits your partnership is already measuring. Together, let’s promote how your efforts strengthen the educational program, the students, the industry, and our society as a whole.

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GIM’s Background in Education

After working for a number of years as a French-English translator, GIM’s CEO, Carreen Schroeder, returned to school to pursue her Ms.Ed. She then went on to work as a French Immersion teacher for a number of years. Each year, Carreen found innovative ways to immerse her students in the “real world”, using their developing French language skills.

At the end of every year, the students would work with local vendors to organize and ultimately open up and run their own French café. They worked on building their own French-language websites, and developed friendships with French-speaking “penpals” in other countries. Carreen wanted the students to recognize that what they were learning “in” the classroom was meaningful and valuable “outside” the classroom. This is one of Carreen’s strongly held beliefs to this day.

When businesses partner with educational institutions, everyone wins — the educational programs remain current, business leaders have an influence on the caliber of graduates, and the industries run more efficiently with a more educated workforce since the skills match the needs of the evolving industries. This is definitely true for the global language services industry.

Carreen has conducted a number of data-driven research articles centered on the importance of educational partnerships within language services. Her first report was initially written for a client but it was so popular that Carreen was approached by a representative at NBU who subsequently republished the piece in the university’s Engish Studies department.

Due to the success of this first report, Carreen went on to write about a few more notable educational partnerships within the language services industry on behalf of the same client. If you are interested in reading some of Carreen’s earlier research reports, here are the links (although some might be behind paywalls):