The State of the Interpreting Workforce

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The prospect of technology, especially AI, replacing human interpreters is all over the news. The interpreting industry, however, encompasses many market segments, some driven more purely by business opportunities and others proscribed by language access or other national legislation. In the former, we are already seeing disruptions in how interpreters work, whereas the latter is likely to experience changes more slowly.

This presentation covers the big picture state of the interpreting workforce:

  • The structure of the global interpreting workforce across specializations
  • The technology used in interpreting, including the rise of remote interpreting
  • How interpreters are trained
  • Best practices for recruiting and retaining interpreters
  • Early AI trends and their safe application

 

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Caroline has been in the language interpretation space for more than 13 years as a Spanish interpreter and with Boostlingo since May 2018. She has been fortunate to be able to live abroad most of her educational career, doing her undergrad at sister school of USF, Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao, Spain, studying international relations and Spanish. She finished her Masters in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies in 2015 at UNESCO sponsored Universitat Jaume I in Castellon de la Plana, Spain, where she finished a 200-page dissertation translated into Spanish and English regarding the power of food in creating intercultural dialogue. Caroline moved back to her hometown of San Francisco in 2015 after finishing her studies and entered into the Social Work field, working as part of a care team to serve low-income, Spanish-speaking older adults. After transitioning from the Social Work field, she found Boostlingo where she manages a robust network of Professional Remote interpreters, ensuring quality, advocating and promoting career development for interpreters, and hosting a myriad of social media efforts and webinars for remote interpreters. As an interpreter herself, she loves working with and promoting the role of the interpreter both in a patient’s care team and in every facet of life. 

Katharine Allen

Katharine has been in the language services space for over 30 years. An interpreter, trainer, university instructor, advocate, author and public speaker, she has held many positions in the field over the year. She co-founded and was co-president of InterpretAmerica from 2010-2020, where she worked to raise the profile of interpreting and advocate for our profession. Katharine joined Boostlingo in summer 2022 as their Training Specialist and general subject matter expert.