What Qualifications and Skills Should Your Translation Agency and Translators Have?

Having language experts and localization specialists take charge of your translation increases your chance of achieving a successful expansion strategy in a new overseas market. But this statement is only true if the translation agency or translators you work with have the proper qualifications, skillsets, and experience to handle your project.

So what exactly should you look for in a translation provider? Let’s find out in our today’s post.

#1. Specialized Expertise

If you meet a translator who claims that they can handle any type of content in any industry, never work with them. It is a common red flag of a bad translator. No translator, no matter how experienced they are, can translate all sorts of content.

To be able to produce a good translation, the in-charged translator must have excellent language command and a solid understanding of a specific field. In other words, they must be a specialized expert. Otherwise, there is no guarantee that they can understand correctly the complex terminologies in your content, let alone accurately convert them into another language.

If you work with a translation agency, then make sure to ask for the blind CVs of the translators that will work on your translation project and analyze them to see if they have relevant qualifications and experience in translating content in your business area.

#2. Certifications

Certifications are great references to show the ability and credibility of a translator or translation agency.

For translators, there are numerous certifications they should acquire to be able to serve clients in a specific country or industry. For example, being ATA-certified means the translator’s competence to translate between English and another language is widely recognized in the United States.

Another example is the requirement of the Canadian government for legal translators. To conduct legal translation in Canada, a translator must pass a test administered by an association in order to be permitted to certify translations as accurate.

For translation agencies, you should look for those with ISO certifications. Some important ISO certifications they should own are ISO 9001:2015 Certification for quality management systems and ISO 17100:2015 for translation quality management systems.

3. Experience

It goes without saying that experienced translators equal higher translation quality at a faster turnaround time. By ‘experienced’, we refer to the translators’ experience in translation for a specific domain and their familiarity with the industry practice.

What’s more, there are many challenges and unexpected issues that you and your translators (or translation agency) have to face during the whole translation process. Working with an experienced translation partner means you can rest assured that your issues are timely resolved by professionals, avoiding the delay in final translation delivery.

#4. Available Resources

Deadlines are always among the top priority of a translation project. Therefore, the translation partner you work with should be available and responsive during the project duration to make sure the deadlines are met.

Translation also requires the use of different tools, from CAT tools to other supporting tools such as dictionaries and QA tools. Your translation partner should be able to support a wide range of tools that benefit your project.

#5. Confidentiality

Sensitive business information got leaked during the translation process is not rare and it results in expensive consequences. Thus, your translators and translation agency should have and adhere to a code of ethics.

You should only work with a translation agency and translators who are willing to sign NDAs to keep your data and content confidential and always keep your working settings in mind.

#6. Good Values

Each translation agency promises to bring you different values when using its services. Some offer the cheapest rates, some provide the fastest services. For GTE Localize, we promise value-for-money translation, meaning you get the best translation quality at the most reasonable price. We make sure each dollar you pay us is worthwhile.

Based on your priority, whether it is time, money, or quality, you will find a suitable translation agency to assist your translation project.

Should You Work With A Translation Agency That Lacks Any Of The Qualifications And Skills Above?

The list of qualifications and skillsets we mention in this post is the essentials that will help you build your trust with your translation agency and translators. The lack of any items might affect the outcomes of your translation project. However, the candidate might offer you extra values that can make up for the lack.

In the end, your goal is to get accurate and cost-effective translations. Thus, as long as this goal is guaranteed, you are good to go with the candidate.

Get Value-for-Money Translation from GTE Localize

GTE Localize is a professional translation agency that works with a team of over 1200+ translators worldwide. They are experienced native linguists with high qualifications in specific domains, guaranteeing to bring you linguistically and culturally accurate translations.

Every member of our team, from linguists to project managers, understands the importance of completing each assignment on time. We make punctuality a habit by practising regularly and giving it our all every day. Statistically, 98 per cent of our projects are completed on time or ahead of schedule. And we never deliver at the latest possible moment.

Contact our team for a 1:1 consultancy and quotation.