A Study on Gansu’s Translation and Interpretation Talents Training from the Perspective of Market Demand

Abstract

Local socioeconomic advancement has given rise to great growth in language service industry of Gansu China, creating the brisk demand for full-fledged translation and interpretation (T&I) talents. However, such progress is slowed by a lack of senior T&I talents and poor T&I training. The existing literature provides little information on the further exploration of the imbalance between T&I talents supply and market demand in Gansu. Therefore, this study adopts quantitative analysis of the data collected through two structured questionnaire surveys to investigate the root causes of this discrepancy. The first survey is for the employment status and curriculum satisfaction among Gansu’s Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) graduates. MTI graduates from Lanzhou University and Northwest Normal University provide 220 samples through the random sampling method. While the second survey examines employer demand for T&I talents. 52 samples are drawn from Gansu’s renowned and accredited language service providers (LSPs) and non-language service providers (non-LSPs) using the stratified sampling method. Results of the research reveal that only 3.18% MTI graduates enter into the T&I industry, confirming Gansu’s MTI training fail to meet the market demand. Based on the market-specific requirements for translators and interpreters, the present authors put forward several suggestions from the perspectives of aligning curriculum design with market needs, meeting the qualification requirements and enhancing the cultivation of essential T&I competences, with hope of providing effective references to the T&I training in Gansu Province and even other regions in northwest China.