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CAREER SECTORS

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LANGUAGES AND CULTURE

Languages

Careers using languages vary widely and include translating, interpreting, teaching and working within international call centre and shared services centres. With an increasingly global marketplace, small and medium sized organisations communicate with clients internationally so a competence in a second language is an asset in a number of fields.

Translators translate written material from one language to another ensuring that the content, context and style of the original material are maintained. Graduate opportunities exist to work on a freelance basis, for agencies, or in the translation departments of multinationals.

Interpreters translate oral communication from one language to another. A number of different specialisms exist. Consecutive interpreting involves interpreting a speech in its entirety after a speaker has finished. Simultaneous interpreting involves the interpreter sitting in a booth listening to a speech through a headset and translating it into a microphone whilst the speech is ongoing. Churchotage is when the interpreter listens to the speech and whispers it to the listener.

Career options exist to work on a freelance basis or as a staff interpreter. Staff interpreters work within translation companies, government departments and international organisations. To work at the European Parliament, training or experience as a conference interpreter is necessary.

Entry routes

Entry routes vary considerably depending on the role. Those interested in pursuing a career in teaching languages will generally need to complete a Higher Diploma in Education or a PGCE. For those interested in translation and interpreting, the UN employs professionals who are based mostly in New York and Geneva and recruitment is by means of competitive examinations. The EU Commission also recruits translators through open competitive examinations which are generally held every three years for each language. Traineeships exist in Luxembourg to work with the European Parliament.

Culture sector

Funding for the arts in Ireland has increased over the last number of years. Gross expenditure on arts and culture in 2007 was increased by 9 per cent from 2006. This includes an 11 per cent increase in Arts Council funding, a 9.4 per cent increase in expenditure for National Cultural Institutions, 50 per cent increase for promotion of Irish art abroad in 2006, and 15 per cent increase in funding for the Irish Film board. Estimates suggest that over 30,000 people work in the sector. Employers are typically large state organisations and small businesses. Self-employment is quite common.

Career opportunities within the sector include:

Curators: work within museums, zoos, botanical gardens and historical sites. Responsibilities include supervising the cataloguing, indexing and storing of species; overseeing the development of guided tours, planning and preparing exhibitions, supervising volunteer programmes, and preparing budgets. Curators generally specialise within a field, eg history, art, botany.

Conservators: manage, care for, preserve, treat, and document works of art, artefacts, and specimens. They examine specimens and determine their condition, the treatment needed and the appropriate method for preservation. They tend to specialise in a particular material or group of objects, eg books, textiles, metals.

Education officers: are responsible for liaising with schools and organising visits, providing educational services including teaching, talks, seminars, courses, meetings, demonstrations, outreach, developing, preparing and managing educational resources.

Arts officers: Various local authorities employ arts officers to promote the development of arts and culture policies. Responsibilities include developing information services, co-ordinating marketing activities, supporting arts projects and initiatives, supporting artists, promoting the profile of the arts locally and nationally and promoting arts in communities and schools.

Entry routes

Routes into the industry vary widely. Many people start in quite junior roles and some begin by working on a voluntary basis. Although the area is open to all degree disciplines, a degree in one of the following areas may be an advantage; drama/theatre studies, film studies, arts, music, archaeology, English, history, Celtic studies. A number of universities offer postgraduate programmes in arts policy and practice, cultural policy and art management (see postgradireland.com for details). Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in museum studies are offered in a number of UK universities including the universities of Manchester, Leicester, and Newcastle upon Tyne.