The Story of Interpreter University

Welcome to your virtual classroom that feels like a classroom.

The mission of Interpreter University, an interpreter trade school, started in the early 2010s when a couple of Language Access professionals gathered at a conference and began discussing the qualifications of 'interpreters' applying for open positions in their hospitals. The direction of that conversation quickly turned to empathy for those interpreters, most of whom had paid hundreds--if not thousands--of dollars for training. Yet, when they were taking the hospital fluency and knowledge assessments, they were not passing the basic standards expected of practicing healthcare interpreters. After hundreds of hour of effort and hundreds of dollars on inferior training, it was decided that we needed to launch this endeavor.  

Originally, Interpreter University was modeled after the idea that live instruction courses were superior to self-paced online learning formats, and that is how we trained for nearly a decade. Then arrived the Covid-19 pandemic and Interpreter University reinvented what an online course can be. We changed it in a way only we could after having trained more than 2,500 professional interpreters for more than a decade in an in-person, classroom environment. Over those years, we kept records of every question asked in every in-person class. In 2020, we converted all of those questions into additional bonus lessons and recorded the instructor explaining those concepts to you, to reinforce the concepts and ideas taught in years of classes. Our courses provide you with all of the benefit of having common questions from thousand of previous students. Yet our self-paced courses still provide the convenience of learning when and where you want, dressed however you want. 

After training an additional 1,300 students in an online format, both with live instruction and self-paced formats, we firmly stand by our students' success. We are confident that the content, format, and value that we offer are superior to any equivalent interpreter training available. Period. 

How do we know? More than 400 of our students came to us after taking other interpreting courses and not being satisfied with their experience, or not being hired for the interpreter jobs they applied for. We also provide while label training for three brick-and-mortar universities and scores of hospitals. 

Our interests do not lie with becoming rich from offering our services, but instead making a commitment to each learner to be successful, to contribute to reverse a nationwide lack of professionally trained and qualified interpreters in the healthcare market, and to ensure that patients with limited English proficiency benefit from improved health outcomes. Click here to spend 10 minutes to learn everything you need to know about selecting your interpreting school before you part with your hard-earned money.

Come, let’s learn together and continue to change the world of interpreting!