Interpreting - PG Dip

More about this course

Take your career to the next level with this Interpreting postgraduate diploma. You’ll benefit from a range of practical experience including site visits, shadowing professional interpreters at work and dummy booth practice both face-to-face and online.

We’ve got a state-of-the-art interpreting suite that has the same technology as top international institutions such as the EU and UN. You can also practise legal public service interpreting (PSI) in our mock courtroom. Our PSI expertise is well known at national and international level.

Outside the classroom, you’ll have opportunities to go on guided trips and travel to institutions outside the UK such as the United Nations in Geneva and the Court of Justice at the European Commission in Luxembourg.

You’ll practise remote interpreting, using innovative online technology to successfully interpret in a post-covid world.

As part of this course you’ll learn different strategies on how to approach and complete long consecutive interpreting, interpreting theory to help you reflect on your own performance, plus how to prepare yourself for work as a professional interpreter in the context of conference interpreting (private market) and public services (English law).

You’ll also learn how to work in the context of public service interpreting, meaning immigration services, the police, courts and probation services. By exploring this area in-depth you’ll learn specific terminology relevant to interpreters in this field, plus how the interactions work between the service provider, the client and you as the interpreter.

This postgraduate diploma can be studied as a stand-alone qualification, where you gain the knowledge and guidance without having to complete research like on a typical master’s degree. However, you could also use this course as a stepping stone to study our Interpreting MA.

Available part-time, you can study this course alongside your job and other personal commitments. This is a day course that requires two days per week of your time for a part-time student and four days per week as a full-time student.

Assessment

You'll be assessed through a variety of essays, presentations, practical interpreting performances, role-play (PSI), self and peer evaluations, plus reflective portfolios.

Entry requirements

You’ll be required to have:

• a 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in translation, interpreting, modern languages or related field
• near native or native knowledge of the English language
• near native proficiency in your chosen paired language
• good command of the second foreign language (if applicable)

For international applicants you are required to have IELTS 6.5 with no component less than 6.0 and be able to meet the DfE entry qualification requirements or equivalents.

Accreditation of Prior Learning

Any university-level qualifications or relevant experience you gain prior to starting university could count towards your course at London Met. Find out more about applying for Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL).

English language requirements

To study a degree at London Met, you must be able to demonstrate proficiency in the English language. If you require a Student visa you may need to provide the results of a Secure English Language Test (SELT) such as Academic IELTS. This course requires you to meet our higher requirements.

If you need (or wish) to improve your English before starting your degree, the University offers a Pre-sessional Academic English course to help you build your confidence and reach the level of English you require.

Modular structure

Where this course can take you

Conference interpreters are highly sought after around the world, and you could go on to work on the private market for either face to face, hybrid or remote interpreting assignments.

Working as a freelancer is a popular choice for interpreters, but you could also work for an agency, private company, international organisation, governments or an educational institution for either face to face, hybrid or remote interpreting assignments.

You will be able to work for public services. We encourage our graduates to join the National Register of Public Service interpreters in the UK or similar professional associations overseas.

You could also advance to our Interpreting MA in order to gain a highly-regarded master’s degree.

Additional costs

Please note, in addition to the tuition fee there may be additional costs for things like equipment, materials, printing, textbooks, trips or professional body fees.

Additionally, there may be other activities that are not formally part of your course and not required to complete your course, but which you may find helpful (for example, optional field trips). The costs of these are additional to your tuition fee and the fees set out above and will be notified when the activity is being arranged.

When to apply

You are advised to apply as early as possible as applications will only be considered if there are places available on the course.