Skills for terminology managers discussed

The “skills” focus group at the International Terminology Summer School identified essential skills each and every terminology manager should possess. This is what they say:

* The skills we need and might need as a terminologist and/or translator depend on many things we have to analyze and define before adding many different skills to a job profile of a terminologist or translator.

Thus, we have to:
a) check if there are standards available, where the state of the art is defined already (such as EN 15038 for translators or ISO/TC 37 standards for terminologists),

b) analyze the specific context where specific skills are needed (e.g.: terminology skills can be split from management skills within a bigger organization where managers are available to discuss and perform terminology projects with terminologists)

c) make sure that the basic theoretical and methodological skills are learned and remembered, e.g. within day 1 of the International Terminology Summer School or the 1st skill unit “Understanding Terminology Management” of the future EU-Cert Terminology Manager (http://www.ecqa.org/index.php?id=52)

* Standards are important for terminology and translation work

* Golden project management triangle is a prerequisite for management skills:
time, resources (financial and human) and quality are crucial for all kind of projects – included terminology and translation projects

* students can get confused easily (when listening to Gabriele Sauberer

* brains of managers might – and often do – work differently from brains of “language people”, such as translators, terminologists, etc.

* we need also skills for managing, “selling” and teaching terminology, i.e. management and marketing skills, along with pedagogical skills