Rising Demand in Certified Translators and Translation Service Providers

The Austrian Standards Institute (ON) is one of the most important bodies practicing audits and certification of companies in the field of translation in accordance with the European standards.

As international communication is continually on the rise, there is an ever greater demand for good translation services. In regard to the quality of these services, one inevitably comes across the European Standard EN 15038, which is a certificate awarded to translation agencies which complete their work according to this norm (for details see en15038.blogspot.com/).

Becoming certified allows agencies to be listed amongst those translation service providers (TSP) worldwide, which fulfil the quality standard set by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). This proves that the agency is able to provide translations of constantly high quality, as well as confirming that projects are comprehensively documented from start to finish, in a transparent and sound fashion.

The institute in charge of these certifications is the Language Industry Certification System® (LICS) with their headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and their global network of partners carrying out the actual certification process. Advantages of being amongst these exclusive TSPs are:

>>Getting ahead of competitors: Conforming to LICS® EN 15038 is a quality label, showing that the agency is competent and committed to the client; they will be allowed to use the logos of the certification institute.

>>Being in demand when it comes to public procurement: Contracting and public bodies opt for certified service providers rather than non-certified ones when considering translations in their tenders

>>Greater appeal to clients overall: Certification shows that translation agencies meet set standards in compliance with the norm, which appears more trustworthy to business clients

The LICS® certification (www.lics-certification.org/) process involves systematic support from the auditing side and is particularly applicable to small and medium-sized companies, as the time spent by the auditor on site and the amount of paperwork is kept to a minimum. The Austrian Standards Institute also provides continual updates of how to improve agencies’ potential in the future and carry out annual re-audits to ensure that translation services are certified.
More information on this globally recognised EN 15038 third-party certificate can be found on the mentioned websites or by getting in touch directly with the Lead Auditor & Trainer EN 15038 & ISO 9001:2000, Mohamed-Ali Ibrahim (certification-services@german-arabic-center.de).