One of the challenges many translators face is finding good professional development courses that suit their needs. This is even more challenging if you want to study them in a language other than English or the language spoken in the country where you live.

As an English and Dutch into Italian translator living in Amsterdam, I know the struggle.

Fortunately, the courses by the Italian company CTI – Communication Trend Italia came highly recommended by both fellow university students and renowned experienced translators. They are also recognized by the Italian translator’s association AITI.

I was interested in their specialist course in financial translation, which is offered as both a classroom-based version and an online version. The online course consists of 19 lecture-like lessons, 7 terminology lessons and 6 translation tests. At the end of each lesson the participant must pass a multiple-choice test to continue the course. The course covered all major financial or finance-related documents that might need translation, like annual reports, merger deeds and press releases.

I really enjoyed this course, so I decided to list some pros and cons so you can decide for yourself if this course would be useful for you as well.

The pros

– On-demand. Enrolling in an online course means that you are free to follow the classes whenever you want. This is particularly handy if you are not a full-time student. I tried following one lesson per day, but I often had to change schedule because of my work commitments.

– Specialised. The lessons focus on financial and economic matters rather than on translation itself, providing great specialisation value. This is also the reason why the course requires prior translation knowledge.

– Taught by experts. The theoretical lessons are taught by two accountants, while the terminology lessons are taught by an English into Italian translator. All the teachers are extremely competent and can draw from their personal experience to answer any questions the participants may have.

The cons

– Limited time. The online course has a time limitation of two months, meaning that all the lessons and the tests have to be completed within that time frame. This might seem like a lot of time at first, but it averages out at 0.8 lessons per working day.

– Pre-recorded. The flip side to on-demand lessons is that participants cannot ask questions while following them. The company does offer the possibility to e-mail questions, although I have never tried this option myself.

– Master? This last one is a personal pet peeve of mine rather than an actual disadvantage. The official English name of this course is “Master’s in Economics and Finance for translators”, a mistranslation of the Italian name “Master di alta formazione in Economia e Finanza per traduttori”. This course is not a master’s degree because it’s not offered by an academic institution.

I found this course extremely useful and it gave me the confidence to market myself as a financial translator. I highly recommend it to whoever is interested in starting a career in this specialisation.

This guest post was written by Martina Abagnale, an English and Dutch into Italian translator based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After starting her career as a project manager at a translation agency, in 2019 she became a sworn translator for the Dutch courts and Italian embassy and has been specialising in legal and financial translation ever since. You can find out more about her services on her website, LinkedIn profile or Facebook page.

Image by Lorenzo Cafaro from Pixabay

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