{"id":15880,"date":"2024-04-10T07:57:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T05:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.zhaw.ch\/languagematters\/?p=15880"},"modified":"2025-04-30T10:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T08:49:14","slug":"jobs-with-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.zhaw.ch\/languagematters\/2024\/04\/10\/jobs-with-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"Check Your Hysteria: There are jobs with languages in Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The advent of ChatGPT has led to hysterical media headlines proclaiming that generative AI will eradicate the need for jobs that work with languages. While it is true that technology is radically changing the face of the profession, language professionals are still very much in demand. Multilingual Switzerland in particular is facing a shortage of labour in the field.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Chantal Wright<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not easy, as the head of a Swiss institute that trains multilingual communication professionals<\/a>, to be confronted on an almost daily basis with click-bait media headlines<\/a> screaming that no-one in the world will ever need to learn languages again and that the professions of translator and interpreter are, to quote the infamous British comedy team Monty Python, as dead as a parrot<\/a>. Strangely, these hysterical headlines have all appeared in the wake of ChatGPT<\/a>, whereas in truth translators \u2013 those are the language professionals who work with written texts \u2013 have been quietly getting along nicely with the machine since at least 2017, when the translation tool DeepL<\/a> appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Chantal Wright<\/a>, Co-Director of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting and Professor of Creativity and the Language Industry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How translators work today<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most professional translators are now also post-editors. Translators feed their text through the machine, which translates it for them, and then the human translator edits the machine\u2019s output. Translators post-edit because the machine\u2019s output is not perfect. The machine doesn\u2019t have real-world context. Nor does it have a tremendous sense of style. Translations will ultimately be read and used by human beings and they need to be looked at by human beings to make sure they\u2019re fit for purpose. This kind of editing is a highly skilled task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeepL Translate is a specialised tool, of course, and is used only for translating. ChatGPT, on the other hand, does lots of different things and is for everybody, not just language professionals or people who need a quick translation. ChatGPT is exciting, it\u2019s frightening, it\u2019s a game-changer. That is why journalists are writing provocative headlines proclaiming the end of the world as we know it. But what goes for DeepL goes for ChatGPT: we still need humans who know how to harness the power of these shiny new tools. Translators, as it happens, already have much more experience with this than most people.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language service providers in Switzerland<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The leading global language industry intelligence service, Slator<\/a>, happens to be based in Switzerland. Although \u201ccompiling a list of Swiss language service providers (LSPs) is no easy task\u201d because of the way the central Swiss business registry functions, Slator has identified 250 Swiss companies whose officially listed business purpose is \u201ctranslation services\u201d. These range from one large language service provider (STAR Group)<\/a> to mid-sized players such as Supertext<\/a> and Textshuttle<\/a> (who have just announced their merger),<\/a> to 70 boutique LSPs and around 150 small ones, not to mention the freelance linguists represented by the professional organisations ASTTI<\/a> (400 members) and D\u00dcV<\/a> (250 members). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact is, though, that the language industry is actually a global industry, with an estimated revenue in 2022 of somewhere between 25 and 60 billion euros (figures courtesy of Slator and Nimdzi). Take a look at the jobs on Slator\u2019s affiliated careers website LocJobs<\/a> and you will see that the majority of the vacancies are labelled \u201cremote\u201d or \u201chybrid\u201d. The LSPs who are advertising these positions are based as far apart as the USA and the Benelux countries \u2026 and Switzerland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Swiss federal government: a key source of employment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Language service providers aside, Switzerland offers another key source of employment for language professionals: the federal government. Translators are needed by the Sprachdienste der Bundesverwaltung<\/a> and interpreters are needed by the Swiss parliament<\/a> and by State Secretariats such as SEM<\/a>. The Sprachdienste der Bundesverwaltung are concerned that they will be unable to replace the significant number of their translators who are due to retire in the next few years. They are so concerned, in fact, that they have formed a recruitment working group to address the problem. The government needs linguists<\/p>\n\n\n\n