The Lifelong Learning Department of Kellogg Community College will offer a Qualified Community Interpreter Training program this fall to give multilingual community members an opportunity to become certified interpreters.
Classes will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays from Sept. 21 through Nov. 9 in room 109 of KCC’s Ohm Information Technology Center, located on the college’s Battle Creek campus at 450 North Ave., Battle Creek. Registration for the program – which costs $499 including testing fees and course materials – runs through Sunday, Sept. 1.
Mary Green, director of Lifelong Learning at Kellogg Community College, said this will be the fourth time KCC has offered the program and that more than 55 students have been certified as Community Interpreters as a result.
“Certified interpreters can be found using their skills in many areas of our community, including education, business and health care,” Green said. “An interpreter who holds the Community Interpreter certificate from Kellogg Community College is skilled in both English and a second language and has been trained to provide interpretation services at the highest level of professionalism.”
The training is the result of a partnership between KCC and Voces that was formed to increase the competency and efficiency of interpretation services in the community. Individuals certified through the training will also be certified in medical interpretation, which provides additional value for the clients who rely on their skills.
“It means that individuals using the services of a certified interpreter in the health care setting can be sure that the communication between patient and health care professional is clear and understood by both parties,” Green said.
The Qualified Community Interpreter Training is a nationally recognized 48-hour certificate program designed to take new or practicing interpreters of any spoken language and ground them in ethics, standards and professional skills associated with the practice.
Because Qualified Community Interpreters must be fluently bilingual, participants in the program must pass the ALTA Language Services Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) at level nine or higher to participate and must be assessed in two languages (English and the second language they will be interpreting). This test will be a phone interview scheduled at the time of registration.
For more information or to register for the program, call 269-965-4134 or visit the Customer Service Center at KCC’s Regional Manufacturing Technology Center, 405 Hill Brady Road, Battle Creek.
For more information about the interpreter training and other class offerings from KCC’s Lifelong Learning Department, visit www.kellogg.edu/lifelong.
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