Professionalism in practice

ITI’s Professional Development Committee is asking itself – and members – some questions. New PDC chair Jo Durning explains.

When I joined  ITI just over a year ago, one of the things that most  impressed me was the strong  commitment to members’ professional development. Continuing professional development (CPD) is firmly embedded in the organisation’s culture. There is an impressive and varied  training offer (from ITI and its networks), a flagship conference every two years, and systems that encourage us to think of 30 hours’ CPD as a minimum and to reflect  and build on what we have done.

The Professional Development Committee (PDC) has had an important role in developing all this good practice. It is the key forum for input by professional translators and interpreters into the direction of the programmes and practices. The PDC recently said goodbye to its long-standing chair, Kari Koonin, and several other members, with many thanks for all their achievements, so it feels like a good time to step back and take a strategic look at what we are doing and why.

What do we mean by the term ‘professional’?

At the first meeting of the ‘new’ committee, we set ourselves the challenge of describing what we mean by being ‘professional’ as a translator or interpreter. Is there a standard that we are working towards or maintaining and developing through our CPD activities? As a membership organisation, can we reach a consensus on what that standard should be?

We recognised that for the very large majority of us working as freelancers, the profession has a very flat career structure. There are no hierarchies, formal progression or indeed specific rewards for good performance. So the onus is on us: we have to take responsibility for our own improvement.

There was a consensus at the PDC that professionals:

• Are expert in what we do
• Provide assurance of the quality of our work – membership of professional association is important, as is our commitment to continuous improvement in all aspects of our business; we apply appropriate quality assurance processes; and we recognise that learning never stops
• Are reliable – we deliver for our clients to an agreed standard of quality and on time and do what we say we are going to do
• Work within our competence, are honest about the challenges we encounter, recognise when improvement is needed and seek help when necessary
• Actively network with colleagues and provide support to others when we can
• Keep up to date with developments in our specialisms, sectors and the profession
• Are aware of new technologies and use them as a tool to improve quality or speed for our clients
• Behave ethically, in line with professional codes of conduct, and manage our work sustainably
• Manage our businesses well, including our business processes, finances and marketing.

We are now offering these ideas here and online, in the hope that they will give rise to debate. We want to know what you think and about any changes you wish to suggest.

A basis for developing  a career framework

The description of professional behaviour will never be set in stone: it will need to develop as the context for our work evolves. But we hope it will help us assess whether ITI is effectively providing opportunities for members to develop in all the areas covered. The PDC will explore whether we can use it as a basis for developing a career progression framework, helping us identify and measure our progress as we move from the early stages of our careers to become established in our field. It is often at the later stages that finding ways to develop becomes more challenging: when we start out, the need for language and business  skills is clear, but later on there can be a temptation to cruise.

For each of us as individuals, a shared understanding of what it means to be professional  will inform our self-reflection on our own CPD, by helping us decide what we need to work on, and reflect on the value of activities we have undertaken: has that activity really helped me become more professional?

This article was first published in the January-February 2025 edition of ITI Bulletin.