Qualification and Experience Criteria for Entry
As the UK’s independent voluntary regulator for the translating profession, NRPST recognise qualifications needed to practise as a professional translator. It is part of our duty to ensure that translators have the required qualifications and practical experience before joining the register. This is to safeguard the public by ensuring that only qualified translators offer their services as professional translators.
Only translators who have gained the qualifications and meet the high standards that we set can be listed on the register. The below information summarises the criteria any qualification must meet in order for an applicant holding the qualification to meet the educational registration criteria for NRPST at any defined status of registration.
It also describes the information required by NRPSI Ltd, in order to assess qualifications either not previously assessed, or changed since the previous assessment.
Qualifications criteria:
The overarching requirements for qualfications to be acceptable for registration at Full or Interim (a) status on NRPST are that they:
- should be at RQF Level 6 (CEFR C1) or higher
- meet the competencies set out in the National Occupational Standards for Translation (last updated 2007) for Professional translator Units 1-4
- will have examined the candidate's skills in the stated languages/directions
- have been independently assessed as comprising at lease 16 criedits for certificates, at least 40 credits for diplomas and at least 120 credits for university degrees, for each language combination
- are run by a provider that shows evidence of a robust teaching/assessment regime, including a convincing track record in runnig similar courses.
The folowing factors have also been decided by the Qualifications Committee:
- the qualification does not have to be specifically public service orientated (as this is not commonly available)
- applicants do not need to have mother tongue as language of application if they have the relevant qualification
- Interim (b) status for applicants who have accumulated at least two thirds of the credits for the recognised examination (i.e. 26 credits for a Diploma in Translation or 80 credits for a university degree, excuding treatsie; credits passed must be relevant to units 1-4 of NOST) and are abkle abd committed to sitting the outstanding modules within a period determined by NRPST. The experience criteria for Full status must also be met.
- If a submitted translation qualification is not actually assessing language skills, there would need to be other evidence to support language expertise. The expectation would be that the qualification proivider would have assessed their candidate's source language at overall IELTS band score of at least 6.5 (CEFR C1) and the target language at overall IELTS band score of at least 7.0 (CEFR C1)
Rare Languages
The Rare Language status will be available but each application to register with NRPST will be assessed on its merit.
Experience criteria
The requirements for applicants to meet the experience criteria are:
- To provide dated evidence of translation work in the public service context, gained in the last five years from the date of application. Older examples of work will not be accepted.
- Evidence should be presented in one, or a combination of all, of the acceptable formats from the list below:
- 100,000 words - evidence must state the number of words (usually in the source language) and state the language direction translated;
- 100 days of translation work;
- 100 translating engagements.
When reviewing the application, NRPST will determine the status of registration: for Full status the total evidence for the five years needs to amount to 100% or more; for Interim (a) status the application must meet the Qualifications criteria for Full status only as no experience is required initially; and for Interim (b) status, in additio to the partial qualifications (as described in the Qualifications criteria) the total evidence for the five years needs to amount to 100% or more.
Annual Renewal
A minimum of 10,000 words, or 10 days of translating or 10 translation engagements (dated in the past 12 months) must be provided at each annual renewal. Evidence may be a combination of two or three of the types, i.e. 2,000 words plus 8 engagements).
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