Technology in Interpretation: Survey Results of Question #5

		Technology in Interpretation Results: Interpreter's Survey- Question #5 Question #5: From the choices above, list the top 1 or 2 skills that would make an interpretive student most employable in the interpretive profession.

		Participants were asked to choose the most important skills from the list provided in question #4. In some cases, it was very easy to see which skills the participants valued the most. The top two highest rated skills in terms of importance were identified from the previous question. However, other participants may have rated every skill with the same importance, which are viable responses. The researcher wanted to know which skill or skills were particularly important to an interpretive job. Therefore, the question was phrased as which skills would make a student most employable after graduation. The results of this question would be vital to shaping the training modules of the future. Students should be taught the skills that employers in the field are specifically looking for. The number of responses for each skill was summed together. These summations were reported as percentages of the total participant number. The results are included in Figure 20. After reviewing the results of the other questions, it was no surprise that page layout skills were by far the most important to make an individual more employable. Nearly 60% of the participants included page layout in their top two skills. In addition, although only 20% chose graphic editing as one of the top skills, many participants insightfully responded that both page layout and graphic editing skills are needed to successfully create publications. A limitation of the questionnaire was the separation of these categories. If they had been combined, it is likely that both page layout and graphic editing would have been chosen by well over 50% of the participants. The next skill rated as highly important was working and navigating in Windows, selected by nearly 40% of the participants. Although this might seem like a rather basic concept, a surprising number of college students do not understand functions such as opening programs, creating new folders, organizing information, or working with disk drives. Since there are no national standards defined for computer science, students of varying technological abilities are entering university courses. According to this survey, professional interpreters and supervisors feel that these basic skills should be an essential component of the training. If graphic editing and page layout are combined, another gap exists between the highest-rated skills and the rest. The third most important skill is creating PowerPoint programs, though only about 21% of the participants chose it. Understanding the role of computers in interpretation (14%) and knowing the basic terminology and parts of a computer (13%) were selected just slightly less than PowerPoint. Using scanners (3%), using digital cameras (3%), and learning about large-format printers and laminators (1%) were the least important for being hired in an interpretive position. Return to Interpreter's Survey Results
		For More Information, contact: Jim Buchholz Schmeeckle Reserve University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (715) 346-4992 jbuchhol@uwsp.edu	All pictures and text are copyrighted by Jim Buchholz, 2002. No part of this website may be duplicated without written permission of the author.