How to reduce social isolation and foster intercultural dialogue?
How to help public services to overcome linguistic barriers in communicating with the foreigners?
The third partner meeting of SMIIM – Skill to maximize inclusion through the interpreting and Mediation project was held on the 18th and 19th of February 2019 in Sofia (Bulgaria). SMIIM is the follow-up project of the successful Language Interpreter Training as a Stepping Stone to Work, which was implemented a few years ago by the same consortium, apart from SwIdeas. The project aims to make a meaningful contribution to reducing social isolation, gaps in intercultural knowledge of the migrant / refugee and the host country public services and language communication barriers.
During the third partner meeting in Bulgaria, partners discussed tasks and results of the project. In particular, the consortium talked about the upcoming training sessions in all six partner countries. Between February and April 2019, 18 hours of face-to-face course and an on-line platform will train 60 students (10 for partners), 30 interpreters and 30 cultural mediators. The completion of the 18 hours and the on-line platform will give students digital badges and a final certificate as interpreter / cultural mediators.
The project aims to obtain the following results:
- Implementation of a web portal to improve the educational offers for students in the field of cultural interpretation and mediation. This innovative product will enable students to practice speaking and interpreting with their peers in other partner countries;
- Twelve promotional events (two per partner);
- Creation of six innovative products including web portal, on-line educational material, video and voice repository and a manual for trainers;
- Training for 60 students (10 for partners), to train 30 interpreters and 30 cultural mediators;
- Training for 12 trainers / mediators (2 per partner) for a continuous professional development opportunity.
Next activity will be in Greece on September 2019, when all partners will close up the project with a training course for trainers and mediators.
Training sessions have started. Join us to become an interpreter!
In February, the training sessions of SMIIM project will have started in some partner countries. The training foresees 18 hours of face-to-face lessons which will introduce the profession of the interpreter / cultural mediator in partner countries. At the same time, an on-line platform with seven modules (Introduction to Interpreting, Interpreting in Practice, Note Taking, Preparation, Community Interpreting, Mediation, Swearing and Bad Language) will deepen the knowledge of students on interpreting and the techniques to be a cultural mediator with innovative tools such as videos, audio files and practical exercises to become skilled interpreters. If you want to join the training sessions to become an interpreter / cultural mediator in Greece, Italy, UK, Bulgaria, Sweden, Germany, please contact the SMIIM partner in your country. For Italy you can send your CV at dario.ferrante@danilodolci.org