Public service interpreters education in French-speaking Belgium

In French-speaking Belgium, public service (PS) interpreting in languages of larger diffusion is taught in daytime university courses. For training in languages of lesser diffusion, the main challenges are to gain access to the target audience, to design a curriculum that closely meets the needs of the stakeholders in the field, to give access to higher education to would-be interpreters, and to develop interpreting skills in multilingual classrooms. The solutions have given rise to a four-level modular and out-of-school-hour university-level training and education programme, elaborated in close links with PS interpreting providers. This article details the challenges, solutions, educational content, certification system, assessment grid and main learning methods of this programme and outlines future developments. The region has stepped up its efforts since the 2000s and now has a pool of trained PS interpreters, who can further their professional development by taking part in a tailor-made process of continuing education at university level.