A Survey On The Employment Situation Of MTI Students Of English Interpreting From Guangdong University Of Foreign Studies

In an increasingly globalized world with frequent exchanges among countries,the language service industry has ushered in unprecedented prosperity,generating a huge demand for excellent translation and interpreting talents.To meet such demand,the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council has officially approved the setting-up of MTI(shorted for Master of Translation and Interpreting)program in 2007.At present,253 universities are offering MTI professional master’s degree,transferring a large number of interpreting talents to the market every year.Throughout the language service market,however,high quality interpreters are still rare to see as a majority of the MTI students of English interpreting turn to other occupations after graduation.Many MTI students of English interpreting have a beautiful vision for the interpreting profession before enrollment,yet failing to be employed as an interpreter when they graduate.Eventually,they compromise to engage in other occupations,leaving the knowledge and skills they have learned unused.Therefore,it is assumed that there might be a gap between the employment expectation of interpreting students and the actual employment status of interpreting graduates.In view of the relatively tough job market,the current employment situation of MTI students and graduates of English interpreting deserves our attention.Guangdong University of Foreign Studies(GDUFS)is one of the first universities in China to offer the MTI program,as well as the first university in China to establish a complete talent cultivation system for translation and interpreting majors.In this,the author takes GDUFS as the example to conduct an employment survey among its MTI students and graduates of English interpreting.Questionnaire is used as the survey method to investigate the respondents’ employment expectation/status,motivation of career choice,as well as the difficulties faced by interpreting students in employment and the countermeasures to overcome these difficulties,among others.The survey aims to look into the employment expectation of interpreting students and actual employment status of interpreting graduates,find out whether there is an gap between the employment expectation and employment status,analyze the underlying causes of such gap if there is any,and put forward suggestions from the individual level,school level and industry level,expecting to improve the employment situation of interpreting graduates,and provide certain enlightenment for the design of MTI training mode.