Report 3 - Remote Interpreting Services: Future Or Present? Results Of A Market Survey In Italy, Spain And The United Kingdom

After having analysed the main features of remote monolingual communication and interaction (SHIFT research report 1) and of remotely interpreted bilingual communication and interaction (SHIFT research report 2), the SHIFT partners, led by project partner VEASYT, moved on to study the current and potential market of remote interpreting through a market survey (Intellectual Output 3 of the project) carried out in the three SHIFT member countries (Italy, Spain, the UK) and on two different sub-groups, in order to study both the supply and the demand of remote interpreting services. Two different questionnaires, in fact, were administered to users of interpreting services (public administrations, social and health companies, freelancers, businesses or corporations), to study the demand, and to interpreting service providers (freelance interpreters, agencies, cooperatives, businesses) to study the supply. Overall, more than 500 respondents participated in the survey.

The purposes of the survey were:

1. to investigate the interpreting services market to understand its current and future needs, and find out who benefits from the use of interpreting services, both face-to-face and remote (via telephone or video call); 

2. to investigate the current and future needs of providers of interpreting services, both face-to-face and remote (via telephone or video call); 3

3. to support and inform the educational approach proposed by the SHIFT in Orality project towards the training of interpreters/future interpreters or cultural and linguistic mediators.

The result is the survey report you can download below. 

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsi­ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.