Conference Interpreting PG Dip

Entry requirements

You’ll be required to have:

• a 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in translation, interpreting, modern languages or related field
• native or near native knowledge of the English language
• near native proficiency in your chosen paired language
• good command of the second foreign language (if applicable)

For international applicants you are required to have IELTS 6.5 with no component less than 6.0 and be able to meet the DfE entry qualification requirements or equivalents.

Months of entry

September

Course content

This course will prepare you for professional work as a conference interpreter. You could go on to work face-to-face or online via remote interpreting in the private market, for commercial organisations or large international institutions such as the European Union or the United Nations.

We offer this course in the following languages paired with English: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

This course offers a distance learning option for full time (one year) and part time (two years) students. Students from both courses are taught in a synchronous hybrid mode as one community of learners.

Become a professional conference interpreter with this postgraduate diploma.

You’ll gain practical experience in our state-of-the-art interpreting suite, which has the same technology as those used by renowned international institutions such as the EU and the UN. Plus you’ll have opportunities to learn outside of the classroom on guided trips around London and possibilities to travel internationally to visit places such as the United Nations in Geneva, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, or the European Commission in Brussels.

Our expertise in innovative technology is key to this course. We’ve developed partnerships with external organisations that provide opportunities for remote interpreting practice, meaning you’ll gain experience of using online interpreting platforms too.

On this Conference Interpreting PG Dip you’ll not only learn how to perform long consecutive interpreting, but also how to embrace the challenges of setting up your own profile as a professional linguist and understand how to develop your visibility on the market.

You’ll study conference interpreting from a European Union and United Nations perspective, helping you to prepare for the accreditation test that freelance interpreters need to take to work for these institutions.

By interpreting in mock conferences throughout the year, you’ll learn about multilingual and multicultural conference management skills. On top of this, you’ll have opportunities to shadow professional interpreters at work and gain dummy booth practice face-to-face and/or online.

This postgraduate diploma doesn’t require you to complete research like on a typical master’s degree, and it can be studied as a stand-alone qualification or seen as a stepping stone to our full Conference Interpreting MA.

Available part-time, you can study this course alongside your job and other personal commitments. This is a day course that will require two days of your time for part-time students and four days as a full-time student.