General Resources and Programmes

There are many resources, courses and workshops that are not specific to a single competency, but can help you develop in several areas at once.

Courses, workshops and programmes:

Translation Consultant Development Workshop (TCDW)

SIL International runs Translation Consultant Development Workshops that include a combination of classes and mentored experience. To find out more about these workshops and when the next one takes place, please contact translationoffice_intl@sil.org.

‘Convergence’ Programme (Wycliffe US)

Convergence is a focused, three-year overseas training and mentoring program developed to help you use your gifts and sharpen your current skills to serve as a Bible translation consultant. It is designed for Americans with previous cross-cultural experience who already have an MDiv or MA in biblical studies, linguistics, theology or a related field.

Masters of Arts in Translation of Scripture (CanIL)

MATS is a Northwest Seminary degree delivered in partnership with local Bible Translation organizations around the world to enable participants to meet all the FOBAI Translation Consultant qualifications. It is designed for experienced, mother-tongue Bible translators actively involved in a translation project with a recognized organization who are seeking to qualify as translation consultants. Applicants need to have the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree and substantial translation experience.

Residency Programme (The Seed Company)

The Seed Company ‘Residency’ programme builds consultant competencies through a combination of academic training alongside mentoring and supervised checking within a cohort of participants.

Graduate Translation Consultancy Certificate (Johnson University)

The courses in the Graduate Translation Consultancy Certificate develop consulting skills for translation in students who have had training in Bible translation and biblical exegesis, have experience in biblical translation, and desire to assist other translators in a consultant capacity for the completion of their projects.

The program develops an experienced Bible translator with biblical training and experience to act in the role of consultant on translation projects of other teams. It focuses on the role of consultant, the consultant’s relationship to the translation teams, the process of consultancy, back translation and other analysis, Paratext tools usage, and evaluation of the translation’s acceptability by the people based on style, genre, and exegetical parameters.

MA in Classical Hebrew and Translation Consulting (Institute for Biblical Languages and Translation)

The MA in Classical (Biblical) Hebrew and Translation Consulting is a consultant training program consisting of source language and consultant skills training modules. This degree combines Hebrew training with translation consulting training and practical consultant work in Bible translation. A person who successfully completes this degree will have core competencies in Hebrew and in translation consulting to serve as a Translation Consultant.

This 70 credit program consists of a 12-month residence in Jerusalem (School of Biblical Hebrew plus 1 additional quarter), and up to 12 months of supervised field internship coupled with remote learning courses.

MA Programme in Bible Translation (FUSP, Nida Institute and UBS)

The MA programme in Bible Translation is offered by the United Bible Societies and the Nida Institute in collaboration with the Fondazione Unicampus San Pellegrino in Italy (FUSP). This degree is sponsored by the three institutions and has received full accreditation from the Italian government.

Graduates of this program will have some of the competencies required to function as exegetes or translation consultants supporting Bible translation projects around the world.