Description
This qualification is an exciting opportunity to develop your skills as a professional translator, equipping you to work in the fast-growing translation services industry. You will experiment with different genres through practical, inspiring translation activities and hone your practice through peer review. You will gain hands-on experience in using tools necessary to operate in this rapidly evolving area (e.g. audio-visual translation or cloud-based translation tools). Your work will be underpinned by an understanding of translation theories and debates. The languages offered on this qualification are French, German, Italian, Spanish, Modern Standard Arabic, or Mandarin Chinese, in combination with English.
Key features of the course
- Engage in authentic translation tasks to develop useful employability skills.
- Choose to translate using either French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, or Modern Standard Arabic.
- Participate in online open translation projects, with a certain degree of freedom to choose what you translate and the opportunity to connect with established translation communities.
- Develop your professional skills with a combination of collaborative activities and peer reviews.
The Open University is recognised as a Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) UK HE registered provider (CIOL) and is a Corporate Member of the Institute of Translation & Interpreting (ITI). We are also institutional members of the Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting Studies of the UK and Ireland (APTIS).
Planning your studies
1If you don’t have an honours degree, talk to an advisor.
2If your first language is English, and you’ve passed an OU level 3 module in your second language, your language proficiency should be suitable, as the exit level of our OU level 3 language courses is CEFR C1.
How long it takes
This qualification is designed for 20 hours per week to study part-time. It can be completed in a minimum of 16 months and up to a maximum of four years.
Career relevance and employability
There is an increasing global demand for translators and language specialists, and this qualification will provide you with the knowledge and skills to embark on a career as a translator. This is an immensely rewarding profession for those with an interest in languages and communication and encompasses a wide and growing range of areas, including audio-visual translation, advertising or website localisation, as well as semi-specialised and specialised translation.
If you wish to pursue a career as a translator, be it as an in-house or freelance translator, this postgraduate diploma will equip you with the necessary professional skills and familiarity with the professional tools you will need in this fast-moving field. You will also acquire a raft of highly valued transferable communication and collaborative skills, such as peer reviewing and teamwork, which are useful in a range of occupations in the communications sector.
If you already have a career in the translation field and are seeking a further qualification as a way to develop your career or as a means to update your skills, then this postgraduate diploma could prove invaluable, and you may also consider progressing to the MA in Translation.
Careers and Employability Services have more information on how OU study can improve your employability.
Modules
To gain this qualification, you need 120 credits as follows:
120 credits from:
You should note that the University’s unique study rule applies to this qualification. This means that you must include at least 40 credits from OU modules that have not been counted in any other OU qualification that has previously been awarded to you.
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes of this qualification are described in four areas:
- Knowledge and understanding
- Cognitive skills
- Practical and professional skills
- Key skills
Read more detailed information about the learning outcomes, and how they are acquired through teaching, learning and assessment methods.
Credit for previous study elsewhere
If you’ve successfully completed some relevant postgraduate study elsewhere, you might be able to count it towards this qualification, reducing the number of modules you need to study. You should apply for credit transfer as soon as possible, before you register for your first module. For more details and an application form, visit our Credit Transfer website.
On completion
On successfully completing this course, we’ll award you our Postgraduate Diploma in Translation. You’ll be entitled to use the letters PG Dip Trans (Open) after your name.
You can progress from this Postgraduate Diploma in Translation to our MA in Translation (F79).
Regulations
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the qualification-specific regulations below and the academic regulations that are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
How to register
If you want to study for this qualification, read the description and check you meet any specific requirements (for example, some of
our qualifications, require you to be working in a particular environment, or be sponsored by your employer). Then select the
module you wish to study first and ensure it is suitable for you before following the registration procedure for that module.
During the registration procedure you will be asked to declare which qualification you are studying towards.
See a full list of modules available for this qualification