Internships

Drawing on her teaching experience, and keen to pass on her knowledge, Elisabeth Lequeue set up a network of translation internships as soon as she became coordinator of the BLS office in 2000.

That's why we've been involved on a daily basis in training the best student translators from the best schools across Europe for many years, which benefits everyone – students, in-house team, management and customers alike. This is truly a win-win: Translation trainees assist with the long and arduous tasks involved in producing quality translations, and in return acquire discipline, tips & tricks and first-hand knowledge of the working realities of subjects which they have spent years studying but which they have not yet put to the test in a business environment.

The internship is a core part of a five-year Master's degree in translation, requiring an enormous amount of knowledge – linguistic, cultural, general and technical, as well as practical. Where better to learn all aspects of the profession than at a translation agency: text analysis, file preparation, tools, terminology, databases, deadlines, briefings, as well as being part of a team!

An internship is often far too short (although this varies from country to country and from school to school) given the magnitude of the task involved in learning the ropes, discovering what translators do day-to-day, and gaining first-hand experience in the field. That's why we take care to ensure that our interns are properly nurtured and guided, so that they understand what is required of us in terms of results, meeting deadlines and satisfying customer expectations.

So when we receive this kind of testimonial, we feel we've fulfilled part of our mission.