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Put your languages to work. Training Professional Interpreters and Translators

Programs

If you are fluent in English and another language, why not make your skills available to hospitals, the courts, Immigration and anywhere the need for accurate multilingual communication exists? 

Individual Courses

Study as much, or as little as you need. Whether it’s for general interest, professional development, or a refresher, you can pick and choose from courses that meet your needs.

Recognition & Accreditation

VanSIT has negotiated for recognition of our graduates with various agencies that hire interpreters.

Free Info Sessions

Join us for a one-hour discussion session – typically at 6:30 pm on the first or second Friday of each month. You’ll learn about the profession of interpreting and how VANSIT will prepare you for the workforce.

Latest News

Telus has failed to get our office phone lines transferred and our internet connectivity functional in our new home since July.  So if you need to phone, please use Ted’s mobile (604) 760-9156    It works – it’s Rogers. 

A few terms used throughout this website

  • Client is the person or organization that pays the bill.
  • End client is the person who needs your interpreting or translation.
  • Consec is an abbreviation of consecutive interpreting. When the speaker pauses periodically for interpretation.
  • Simo is an abbreviation for simultaneous interpreting. When the speaker just talks and the interpreter interprets at the same time.

All our courses and exams are delivered via Zoom. As  of June 2022.

Community interpreting courses and exams

Following the successful experiment (pre-Covid), we expect to run our complete Community Interpreting series as two classes per Saturday from 3 February 2024 through to the end of June. That is 10 AM to 3 PM every Saturday for sixteen weeks-with breaks for holidays.

Health care interpreting returns

Our three-course Health Care Enhancement series will run from March to the end of June on Tuesday and Thursday  evenings . The series will be open to holders of our Community Interpreting Certificate. There will be a written exam taken from our lecture handouts directly and from the anatomy textbook references made by our instructors. Holders of our Community Interpreting Certificate who take this series and pass the exam will receive a Certificate in Healthcare Interpreting.

This series will also be open to students wanting to take only the fewest courses needed to meet the minimum requirements of the Provincial Language Services branch of the Government of British Columbia. As at January 2023 those minima appear to be met by Basics of Interpreting plus these three health care courses. We issue a statement of completion for each course you pass, however we do not issue a certificate for the “bare minimum” option.

Para-legal interpreting certificate

We will resume our Para-legal Interpreting Certificate series at on about 23 April 2024 to early July.  – with a view to issuing the first certificates in July. This series used to be called “Law Office Interpreting” — which tells you exactly what is designed for. It is really the first half of Court interpreting but does not cover simultaneous interpreting (“simo”) nor much of Courtroom procedure. Simo is counter-productive unless there is specialized audio equipment in a sound isolating environment. Doctors and lawyers don’t like to have two people talking at the same time. Actually, probably nobody does.

Court interpreting series

We expect to start the Court Interpreting series in in August 2024 on Monday and Wednesday evenings – with a view to finish in January 2025. This is where we introduce simo, which is essential for whisper interpreting testimony and courtroom processes which almost always are in English. Our Certificate in Court Interpreting is functionally identical to the Langara/VCC certificate with a few tweaks arising out of thirty years experience within that program. Consequently our graduates are recognized as Level 2 Court Interpreters by the Court Services Branch  of British Columbia.