TermCoord Presents at ECQA Summer School, Vienna

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The Terminology Coordination Unit (TermCoord) of the European Parliament was represented at the ECQA Summer School in Vienna this summer, 9-13 July 2018, by María Isabel Bolívar Pérez, our former terminology trainee, and I as participants in the ECQA certification. Rodolfo Maslias, Head of the Terminology Coordination Unit, was invited for the workshop ‘STANDARDS, LEGAL ISSUES and “TERMINOLOGY FOR EUROPE” to speak about TermCoord on the last day of the event.

María Isabel and I both presented TermCoord on Thursday 12 as part of the ECQA certification exam – where each participant has to present a terminology project – respectively as a terminology trainee and a rotating terminologist within TermCoord, and, in my case, as a terminologist in the Danish translation unit. Moreover, I presented the Danish Terminology Network. You can view our presentations here.

Even though terminology is closely related to and part of the translation process and therefore carried out many times by the same people translating, working with languages, etc., specific terminology training is still necessary in order to keep up with the new and growing demands within the industry and new needs from clients. One of the most important lessons that I have taken from the ECQA Summer School is that a terminologist needs to not only be good at terminology and term creation but also at ‘communication, business negotiation, marketing and project management’ (see ‘Professional Profile for Terminologists‘).

On TermCoord’s initiative, the Directorate General for Translation in the European Parliament in Luxembourg conducts some training via webinars to permit terminologists to obtain the ECQA terminology management certification.

María Isabel presenting TermCoord at the ECQA Summer School in Vienna

This year’s Summer School was targeted at the advanced ECQA terminology certification as the participants were experienced professionals, which became more than clear on Thursday 12 with the participants’ presentations of their terminology projects.

Never underestimate the power and value of a room full of like-minded people and that of a professional network!

The nature of the network, TermNet, also became obvious from day one in the terminological choice they had made by calling us ‘colleagues’, which is very different from, e.g. ‘participants’ or ‘students’. Terminology matters!

The Summer School had an overall practical focus starting from day one with Klaus Fleischmann from SDL and Kaleidoscope with valuable inputs both from the industry and from experienced terminology consultants sharing their experience and best practices within the field of terminology.

The last day, Friday 13 July – for which TermNet invited prominent market players from the worldwide industry – took the shape of a ‘conference’, and gave an insight into global and national terminology initiatives as well as within language communities.

However, theory was not forgotten of course (see program) and was given by names like Professor Klaus-Dirk Schmitz, Frieda Steurs and Georgeta Ciobanu. As the field of terminology and the profile of the terminologist is constantly changing, it is crucial to stay up to date with theory and industry development as well as the standards for terminology. In termcoord.eu, you can find readings, incl. theses on terminology. Moreover, we  participate in conferences, organise seminars and workshops and collaborate with universities wherefrom the knowledge is documented and shared through articles, posts, presentations, e-books, etc. You can also subscribe to our newsletter.

Check out our Facebook post for more of an insight into TermCoord’s participation at the Summer School.


Written by Stine Jensen – Linguistic Terminologist at TermCoord