The “European Master's in Translation ” (EMT) network is holding its constitution meeting in Brussels on 8 and 9 December. The member universities providing translator training programmes get together to establish the network's governance structure and to plan which competences a professional translator of the future may need.

Last September, 34 Master's level translation programmes from universities all over Europe were selected to be members of the EMT network for an initial period of four years. A further call will be launched at the end of 2010. With the EMT network, a quality label for translation programmes at Master’s level is born. This will pave the way for high-quality education for translation students, broadening their professional horizons while nurturing competent workforce even for public institutions.

In this first meeting, the participants are electing t he EMT network board and setting up three working groups . The groups provide a forum for discussion and action in three broad fields related to translator training: the future of the translator's profession, translation tools and technology (applied research) as well as translation education and learning outcomes.

The first day of the meeting is devoted to the discussion between the member universities. On the second day, u niversities whose applications were unsuccessful in the first call will also be invited to contribute to the development of the project.

The purpose of this EMT network meeting is also to launch a forward thinking analysis on the competences a translator needs in the future and which should therefore be provided by the universities involved in the EMT programme. According to the current set of criteria that governed the selection of the 34 translation programmes in September, the students enrolled in Master’s programmes displaying the EMT quality label will acquire competences enabling them to provide translation services in a broad sense, including all types of multilingual and multimedia communication.

Thus, they will develop skills in translation service provision, including marketing, customer relations, time and budget management and invoicing. They will acquire language and intercultural competences, including the ability to summarise texts and understand presuppositions or allusions, etc. They will know how to search for information and develop both their technological competence (translation and terminology tools, database management, etc.) and thematic competence (knowledge in specialist fields and applications).