NAATI

What is a NAATI License

Within Australia, only one form of licensing is recognised for those offering translation and interpretation services and that is the NAATI license. This acronym stands for National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters – and is it often sought after by those wanting to offer professional translation services on both a professional and personal level.

Many applicants go on to provide the highest quality interpretation services to government bodies, medical institutes, local constabularies and other official organisations. The NAATI license itself is a composition of policies and protocols that are used to dictate a candidate’s viability when obtaining this level of accreditation. Only those that can aptly demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a particular language, or set of languages, will be eligible to apply and achieve certification.

What does the accreditation involve?

As of 2011, further measures were put into place to ensure the integrity of the National Accreditation Authority (the NAA). After extensive research in an effort to better the skills and expertise of those that obtained licenses, the institute decided to increase the requirements needed to obtain formal licensing in an attempt to better separate those that are able to offer world-class services from those that may have previously obtained qualifications with the authority.

This process was known as the INT, which stands for Improvements to NAATI Testing. This formal procedure was initially tested by Professor Sandra Hale, in an effort to define parameters to ensure that only the highest quality language translators and interpreters would be able to obtain licensing. As of 2017, this measure is still in place and anyone that was qualified before the changes were introduced Australia-wide would have needed to retake examination to re-obtain their licensing.

What does this mean for people wanting to hire NAATI registered translators?

Although many successful license holders go on to provide their expert translation services to businesses and professional sectors, just as many offer personalised interpretation features instead. Once licensed, the certification dictates that anyone that has been accredited can go on to provide their translation services for both personal and commercial purposes.

When small interpretation projects are required it can be possible to hire a freelance translation service, but as these individuals will often simply speak two languages there won’t be a guarantee that the results will be of the quality required. This is why most leading authorities recommend hiring those that are accredited as professional translators within Australia.

This is simply because these individuals will have had to have undertaken extensive training, as well as a variety of tests and examinations to ensure that they are proficient in all of the ways dictated by the INT. Anyone unable to complete this training to the required level will be permitted to re-apply, but those that are able to obtain licensing can provide world-class translation services on personal and commercial levels to those in need.