Working in credentialing, you have an important job to do. You serve credential candidates, helping them to demonstrate their competency and then gain access to skilled jobs. You also serve the public, helping to enforce standards and keep everyone safer. But are you serving everyone in the right way? For many credential programs with changing or expanding demographics, translating and adapting credential exams into additional languages can allow everyone to win.
It’s About Standards
Credentialing helps to maintain standards in key areas such as health and safety. Issued by authoritative bodies in many fields, a credential attests to the minimum qualifications, competency and capability of the credential holder.
As you know, the exact requirements set by credential programs may vary from country to country, field to field and even skill to skill. And it is common for programs to use credential exams as part of that process. A passing exam score is a prerequisite to award of the credential. But is everyone being served?
Competency Comes in Many Languages
For many people, earning a credential is the key to being able to work in their chosen field.
As our world gets smaller and more interconnected, many credential programs are seeing increasing numbers of candidates whose primary language is not the one that the exam was originally designed for.
Now close your eyes for a moment. Consider how comfortable you would feel taking a credential exam in a foreign language or a second language. Do you think you would earn the same score as if you took the exam in your native language?
Offering your organization’s credential exam in additional languages can help credential candidates more easily demonstrate their competency and work in their chosen field sooner.
Experience in Multilingual Exams
At the Institute for Credentialing Excellence’s 2018 ICE Exchange conference, I had the pleasure of co-presenting a session titled “Test Adaptation: The Challenge of Using Multilingual Assessments in Accredited Programs” with Joy Matthews-López, President and Senior Psychometrician at JML Measurement & Testing Services, LLC and Liz Corchado Torres, Senior Project Manager of Exam Development at the National Restaurant Association. As COO at Responsive Translation, my own domain of expertise lies in the translation and adaptation of high-stakes assessments and exams. We each provided a unique perspective, sharing best practices and important considerations for the translation and adaptation of credential exams.
If you’d like a copy of our session material, please let me know (email: [email protected]) and I’d be happy to send it to you.
Multilingual Expertise
Responsive Translation can help credential programs expand their exam access.
We specialize in providing translation, adaptation, validation and review of assessments and exams for clients in high-stakes industries such as education, health care, human resources and law.
To learn more about Responsive Translation’s foreign-language services and how we can help your organization, please get in touch at 646-847-3309 or [email protected].