You have to know ‘who’ and ‘how’ your document will be translated to be sure of the quality. There are approx 3k translators and translation companies listed in the UK alone (yell.com), all of these players providing a different translation service.

Over the past 20 years, the language services industry has developed from a “cottage industry” to a serious, professional sector with its own processes, tools, and requirements and now emerging international standards.

The new industry standard is ISO 17100:2015 Translation Services. This provides a means of independently setting a benchmark of professionalism in the delivery of translation services.

This standard specifically relates to the language services industry. It aims to set the criteria for basic requirements and quality expectations of services- upon which the professionalism of language service providers can be objectively assured. The standard doesn’t prescribe how to translate the document but sets out the requirement for the core processes, resources and other aspects necessary for the delivery of a high quality translation service.

It is this standard that can provide the assurance that the quality of the translation will meet the standard required. To date there are only a small number of translation companies globally that have this certification and I’m pleased to say that TW Languages achieved ISO 17100 in July 2016.

Janet Perkins, Managing Director, “By achieving a badge of quality this demonstrates that the team at TW Languages are committed to continually providing a professional high quality translation service”.