CCCI offers training to high school students as future health care interpreters

by NITA Administrator ~ December 16, 2009

The Cross Cultural Communication Institute (CCCI) offers, as other language service providing companies also do, a series of recurring training programs for aspiring legal, medical and mental health interpreters. They do that in two locations, in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire. Their present cyclical offering of training programs, which are repeated a few times per year, includes the following:

• Advanced English Skills for Interpreters (40hrs, in Woburn, MA)
• The Art of Medical Interpretation (60hrs, in Nashua, NH and Woburn, MA)
• Fundamentals of Legal Interpretation (60hrs, in Woburn, MA)
• Interpreting in Mental Health Settings (40hrs, in Woburn, MA)
• Training the Trainer (40hrs, in Nashua, NH)

However, the CCCI also offers something which we, here at NITA, feel that truly stands out as a very interesting idea: it’s a specialized High School Medical Interpreter Training Program. No, this is not a program to sharpen your interpreter skills for work as an interpreter in high school settings. Instead, it is a special program for bilingual students and possible future interpreters who are enrolled in high school. It is, in fact, a two-year curriculum, supported by a two-volume manual: “Introduction to the Art of Medical Interpretation, High School Edition” a manual which was developed by the CCCI itself.

According to the information offered on their website, their curriculum is structured “so that bilingual students can develop skills today that will allow them to pursue healthcare interpretation as a future profession or as a professional anchor as they work their way through college.” As they rightly point out: “Minors should never interpret in healthcare settings.” Yet the way their program is structured, and “in the year or two it takes to meet the age requirement, high school students can study interpreting ethics, modes and techniques and sharpen their language conversion skills through supervised role-play practice, personal study and language lab activities.”

This focus on those who already have the fundamental bilingual language skills as aspiring interpreters in their high school years is one that we believe deserves following; it would be interesting to see a similar effort also unfold in a state with such a large non-native English speaking population as Nevada. All in all, we believe this is both an inspired and an inspiring idea!

For more information, please consult the pertaining page of the CCCI website.