Content and Objectives
The aim of the continuing education course program in court and public service interpreting is to provide students with the knowledge, skills and competencies they need for their current or future employment in relevant professional fields in a given language pair. Students may enroll with the following language pairs:
- Albanian and German
- Arabic and German
- Dari/Farsi and German
- Turkish and German
Other languages may be offered in future subject to demand (in combination with German).
Target audience
The continuing education course in court and public service interpreting is designed for people looking to gain qualifications or further training in the field of interpreting for the courts and public institutions. Our programs prepare students to be expert interpreters and translators across a wide range of professional areas related to court and/or public service interpreting. At the end of the program, students will have developed the skills and competencies required in the following fields:
- legal interpreting
- police interpreting
- asylum interpreting
- healthcare interpreting
- interpreting in education settings
- interpreting for social services
Qualification profile
High-quality interpretation serves people who are not sufficiently familiar with the official language of an institution, and it is equally important for the institution in question. It facilitates smooth processes, supports the work of the experts working for the institutions, creates trust and ensures quality and legal certainty.
Our postgraduate programs in court and public service interpreting prepare students for their activity as interpreters and translators in the judicial field, for the police and asylum authorities, in the fields of healthcare and educations as well as for social institutions.
Our programs are no replacement for the certification procedure for becoming a sworn and certified court interpreter.
Graduate profile:
- Graduates are well prepared for the work as interpreters and translators for public institutions thanks to the linguistic, cultural, translational and technological skills acquired in the course.
- Graduates are able to apply and communicate their skills thanks to the integrated acquisition of practical competences and methods that are fundamental to interpreting and translating for public institutions. Furthermore, they are able to continue honing these skills flexibly and independently.
- Graduates have a high degree of linguistic, research, and translation competence, as well as additional social and interdisciplinary skills.
- Graduates have the skills and qualifications to act as professional translators and interpreters in public institutions and acquire and process new knowledge under constantly changing social and technological conditions.
Participation requirements
The participants should have completed a relevant bachelor’s or equivalent degree course at minimum. Additional work experience is beneficial.
Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis for interpreters who do not hold an academic degree but do meet the university entrance requirements and have at least four years of demonstrable experience in translation-related fields.
ECTS and workload
ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits provide information about the workload required to successfully complete a course. According to the Austrian University Act (UG 2002), 1 ECTS Credit corresponds to a workload of 25 hours (60 minutes each).
According to the Teaching Manual of the University of Vienna, the ECTS Credits are defined as follows:
"ECTS Credits describe the workload students typically have to fulfil to achieve certain learning outcomes... One ECTS Credit is... equivalent to a workload of 25 hours.
This comprises course attendance including examinations as well as studying outside of the lecture hall, preparation and follow-up work and internships, if applicable.
The stipulated workload designates the estimated time an average student will require to achieve the learning outcomes and not the actual time each individual student will have to spend on the course. Students receive ECTS Credits after submitting documentation of their performance and the corresponding assessment.“
(University of Vienna, 2019, Teaching Manual, p. 16)