Mobility of citizens is a guiding principle of the European Union, as demonstrated by the European Year of Workers Mobility in 2006 and European Year of Citizens proposed in 2013. The European Commission in proposing the 2013 Year states “The purpose of the European Year of Citizens is to facilitate Union citizens’ exercising their right to move and reside freely within the EU by ensuring they can easily access information about their rights.”
Addressing language barriers is fundamental to being able to easily access information. This can be achieved by tuition of the host language in which the citizen resides, but until the individual has sufficient confidence and competence access to interpretation and translation ensures equality of access to public services.
In the 24 months of the project the objective will be to develop an EU wide applicable training course for interpreters through the adaptation, transferral and piloting of the interpreter training programme developed in the UK.
The LITSSW project will transfer an innovative and successful language interpreter training course, created and delivered by Dacorum Council for Voluntary Service (working name Community Action Dacorum) in the UK, to partner locations Runi Center in Bulgaria, Iberika in Germany, Active Citizens Partnership in Greece and Centre per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci in Italy. The interpreter training aims to help with integration and enhance the social inclusion opportunities for immigrants.
Programme: (EACEA) – Lifelong Learning Programme – Leonardo – Transfer of Innovation (TOI)
Project duration: 01/12/2012- 31/12/2014
Objectives:
The project aim is to transfer an innovative methodology of training interpreters to assist individuals with language communication barriers to access public services.
In the 24 months of the project the objective will be to develop an EU wide applicable training course for interpreters through the adaptation, transferral and piloting of the interpreter training programme developed in the UK:
We will achieve this by:
- assess the need for interpretation and provide a body of evidence to support initial research on languages required.
- adapt the current UK training course
- train the trainers to deliver course
- deliver first pilot
- review the outcomes of the pilot and adapt / develop e-learning tools (LEO-OPObj6)
- deliver updated version of training
- review delivery and create final training package for exploitation
Activities:
- Five partner research reports on present position and opportunity for interpreting and translation, with a community, academic and public sector perspective;
- Training programmes for each locality, based upon the transferred UK model but adapted to the cultural and society reality in each partner country;
- 24 trained interpreters in each partner country;
- Project website and dissemination to a wide audience of politicians, decision makers, academic institutions, public sector agencies, NGO’s / Social Partners, and individuals from migrant / immigrant communities;
- Sustainability Strategy outlining the future opportunities for the training tools in terms of rolling out to other locations, including exploitation and commercialisation.
- In the lifetime of the project (24months) the main goal will be the transfer of the innovative language interpreter training course, created and delivered by Dacorum Council for Voluntary Service in the UK, to the other 4 EU countries.
Partners:
- Project Coordinator: Dacorum CVS, United Kingdom
- RUNI Centre, Bulgaria
- Iberika, Germany
- Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo “Danilo Dolci”, Italy
- Active Citizens Partnership, Greece
Contacts:
Dario Ferrante
dario.ferrante@danilodolci.org
Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci
Via Roma 94 – 90133 Palermo, Italy
Tel. +39 091 6177252
Project details: project web site http://www.interpretertraining.eu
Project number: 2011- UK/12/LLP-LdV/TOI-561
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.