Mentoring
Find out about mentoring schemes offered by the different ITI Networks.
Whether you are just starting out in the world of translation and interpreting or have been practising for a while, it can be enormously useful to work with a more experienced practitioner to check that your professional skills are on track.
At ITI, mentoring schemes are run individually by many of the language, subject and geographical networks. Below are the details of the schemes on offer.
These schemes all operate in different ways and have different membership criteria, so please get in touch with the scheme's coordinator for more information.
Language networks that offer mentoring
French
The French Network offers two mentoring schemes: translation mentoring and business mentoring. The schemes are available to practising translators who are members of both ITI (any category other than Student members) and the French Network.
The translation mentoring scheme is available for up to 10 mentoring pairs per year. Mentors and mentees are paired up according to their goals, experience and specialist area, with the mentee and network each paying half the mentoring fee. Mentees translate three texts of around 500 words over the course of a couple of months. Contact: Cherry Shelton
The business mentoring scheme is aimed at language professionals with two or more years of experience. It involves four sessions over six months and is intended to provide support and advice about how to run a business, covering areas such as pricing services, identifying new clients and becoming more visible online. As with the translation mentoring, the mentee and the network each contribute half the mentoring fee. Contact: Sarah Bowyer
German
The German Network offers a translation mentoring scheme. Mentees are matched with a suitable mentor for their preferred subject area and are set a total of three 500-word texts to translate over around 6 months. After reviewing each piece, the mentor provides feedback and advice. A fee is payable for the three sessions.
This scheme is open to German Network members.
Contact: Andrew Godfrey-Collins
Italian
The Italian Network runs a mentoring scheme once a year, offering business and translation mentoring – the first focussing on business skills and expertise and the second on linguistic, translation skills. Members can sign up as either mentors or mentees and the network provides a pairing system where each mentor is matched with specialism requirements requested by the mentee.
Payment is subsidised by the Italian Network for mentees, who contribute half the cost of the mentoring programme.
Contact: Selene Genovesi
Japanese
Under the J-Net mentoring scheme, a translator seeking to improve the quality of their work or to move into a new area of translation (the mentee) is paired up with a more experienced translator who works in the relevant area (the mentor). The mentor sets the mentee around six texts to translate, and provides feedback on the mentee’s translations in exchange for a modest fee. The scheme is open to friends and members of J-Net.
Contact: Gwen Clayton
Portuguese
The Portuguese Network has no formal mentoring scheme but can organise informal mentoring when requested.
Contact: Graham Cross
Polish
The Polish Network mentoring scheme covers translation, certified translation, editing and revising in PL<>EN in general texts and with specific specialisms including medical, literary, academic and subtitling. The network also offers mentoring on CPD/business development planning and business/financial and marketing skills, including social media. For interpreters there is mentoring on conference interpreting, remote interpreting and equipment.
The scheme is free to members and consists of three texts to translate or three sessions with their mentors.
Contact: Agata McCrindle
Spanish
The Spanish Network mentoring scheme has been running since 2011 and each year they match around 5-6 mentors with a mentee. The scheme is part funded by the network and part paid by the mentee. Mentees discuss their goals with their mentor and then receive six texts of around 500 words to translate over the course of six months. Mentoring is open to both newcomers to the profession and those who want feedback from a specialised colleague. Previous requests for specialisation fields have included international development, legal, marketing, business, technical and medical translation.
In order to take part in our mentoring program, candidates must be both members of the ITI and of the Spanish Network.
Contact: Francesca Matteoda
Geographical and subject networks that offer mentoring
East Midlands
The East Midlands Regional Group (EMRG) Buddy Scheme is a mentorship programme for translation and business skills. It is aimed at both experienced translators and newcomers to the profession.
The EMRG has taken an alternative approach to sharing knowledge between members. Whilst many other mentoring programmes involve payment, the Buddy Scheme is a free service that any EMRG member can access. This approach means that the Buddy Scheme is offered as an informal partnership opportunity, for which the content and frequency of sessions are left largely to the discretion of each mentoring pair.
Contact: Gabriella Di Luca
Medical
In this scheme, which is part-funded by MedNet and part paid for by the mentee, the mentee is offered mentoring in his or her language combination in a subject area within medicine. The mentor chooses three texts of around 500 words in length for the mentee to translate and return within the agreed time frame. The mentee then receives feedback from the mentor.
Contact: Ulrike Nichols
Western
The Western Regional Group has a New Entrants subgroup that provides peer support and mentoring to members who are new to the translation or interpreting profession.
Contact: Becca George