Learn Q Interpreting Qualifications FAQs

The Level 3 Certificate in Community Interpreting is the entry level qualification for paid interpreters and is often a minimum requirement of interpreting clients (such as public services) and interpreting agencies (also known as Language Service Providers) in the UK.

The Level 3 Certificate allows you to accept paid interpreting assignments in community settings including:

• Health
• Mental Health
• Job centres / welfare
• Social services
• Housing
• Education
• Immigration
• Local government
• Charities

Any legal work (e.g. courts, police) usually require a higher level of qualification and at least 2 year’s professional experience

The Essentials bundle includes the course, one attempt at the exam and the certificate. That can be paid in full for £544 or by interest free instalments – instalments start at £68 per month over 8 months: https://learnq.co.uk/courses/interpreting/interpreting-level-3/level-3-certificate-in-community-interpreting-course-and-exam-essentials

There is also a version which has a higher pass rate because it comes with 2 attempts at the exam (the Ultimate bundle) and that costs £600 – instalments start at £75 per month over 8 months: https://learnq.co.uk/courses/interpreting/interpreting-level-3/level-3-certificate-in-community-interpreting-course-and-exam-ultimate

The only difference between these two packages is the number of exam attempts. Essentials has just one attempt at the exam, while Ultimate has two attempts, meaning if you fail the first one you can re-sit for no additional charge. Re-sits are otherwise priced at £150 each.

The course is flexible, so the total time taken is up to you. The average time taken is 3-4 months, but you book the exam when you feel ready.

The course takes place over 7 webinars, with each webinar lasting 2 hours. If you join the live sessions, these take place over 7 weeks (one webinar per week).

If you prefer, you can watch recorded versions of the webinars which are available any time you want them, so that means you can compete the course in your own time. This means you can complete the course much quicker or slower depending on your preference.

After the course, if you want to take the exam it is up to you when you book – you can book immediately or leave it until you have had more chance to revise.

Total hours of learning for successful students are around 70-80 hours.

You can start working through our online content, including recordings of the webinars, as soon as you make your first instalment.

If you want to join our popular Virtual Classroom sessions, we run them all year round, with at least one class starting every month.

The next live classes are scheduled on a specific day of the week 18:00-20:00 and there is one per week, on the same day for 7 weeks. When a class fills up (maximum student numbers are 12) we schedule another one so we have at least one live class starting each month. Please note that places fill up quickly so if you want to start as soon as possible you are best to reserve your place sooner rather than later.

Please contact us directly for the date of the next class.

Yes, it is all studied online so you don’t need to leave your home or spend time travelling to and from a location. The exam is also online via Zoom.

All you need is a good internet connection and an internet ready device (a laptop or PC is best).

You can pay to take a retest which is just £150

It’s cheaper to take the Ultimate bundle option though as it includes 2 attempts at the exam (meaning its just £56 for the additional exam), and if you put the time in studying there is no reason you would fail.

The majority of fails are due to the student underestimating the exam and not studying relevant terminology and vocabulary properly

Unfortunately, as a privately run (non-Government) organisation we do not have any access to direct funding, but you can spread the cost with interest free instalments starting at just £68 per month, plus you can save £25 by using the code subsc1b3

Alternatively, if you claim benefits such as Universal Credit, you might get help from your work coach at the Job Centre. The Job Centre have access to funding through the ‘Low Value Procurement’ scheme, which forms part of the ‘Flexible Support Fund’. It does depend on individual circumstances, but it is definitely worth asking and naming our course. I will send you an email about the course that you can show to them at the end of this chat that might help you to secure funding.

Make sure you mention the ‘Low Value Procurement’ scheme, and the ‘Flexible Support Fund’ specifically. If your work coach doesn’t already know about them that should prompt them to find out.

It’s down to individual Job Centres and Work Coaches whether they provide you funding or not – some students get it, some don’t. I think it often depends on your circumstances including household earnings etc.

Our level 6 is a self-led DPSI Law preparation course which costs £200 and can be worked through in your own time: https://learnq.co.uk/courses/interpreting/interpreting-level-6/level-6-diploma-in-public-service-interpreting-self-led-preparation-course

The exam is offered by the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) and costs around £900.

The full DPSI (Units 01-05) can be taken in June. In November they offer the full DPSI (Units 01-05) for the Law pathway only and only written units (Unit 04 and Unit 05) for all other pathways.

• Part 1: two way (consecutive) and simultaneous legal interpreting role play
• Part 2: legal sight translation from English
• Part 3: legal sight translation to English
• Part 4: legal draft written translation from English
• Part 5: legal draft written translation to English

The exam needs to be booked directly with CIOL.

Our qualifications are accredited in the UK and approved by Ofqual, the UK government department responsible for maintaining qualification standards. This also means it is accepted by Interpreting Agencies (a.k.a Language Service Providers) and Public Services throughout the UK.

You can read more about our Awarding Organisation and Ofqual on our ‘About’ page here, as well as some links to our courses on the Ofqual Register of Regulated Qualifications: https://learnq.co.uk/about/organisations-qualifications

We do forward successful students names on to eight different interpreting agencies after they pass (Crystal Clear, Clear Voice, The Language Shop, Language is Everything, Clearlingo, DA Languages, Translations Express UK and Silent Sounds)so they may contact you with work opportunities, but it is straightforward enough to join yourself once you have received your certificate. Just Google ‘interpreting agencies’ or ‘Language Service Providers’ though and you will find a lot of them easily. It’s also worth joining interpreter groups on social media as the information shared there tends to be much more current than our information.

We can’t provide a list of all agencies as we don’t work with them all and can’t recommend companies that we don’t work with in case they are bad recommendations, plus it would take a lot of resource to keep it up to date.

Once you have received your certificate, you can use it to register with agencies. We have some videos about it here if you would like to have a look: https://learnq.co.uk/blog/interpreting/the-8-step-guide-to-working-as-an-interpreter

This video will be of particular interest: https://youtu.be/CAuADZdin9g

This qualification is an accredited qualification, which means you get awarded credits for it. The credits do three things:

1. They help to define the level of the qualification, and whether it is an Award, Certificate or Diploma. The credits in our course define it as a Level 3 Certificate.
2. You can use credits to put toward other qualifications on the same subject, so for instance if you wanted to study another Level 3 in interpreting with someone else you could put the credits you have already earned toward it and not have to re-do things you have already done – sadly you cant put them toward courses in other subjects, or higher levels in the same subject so in terms of interpreting they are pretty limited
3. More importantly, some interpreting agencies ask for not only the qualification but also a minimum number of credits – for example, over 12 credits – before they will work with an interpreter. Our qualification has the highest number of credits available for courses of its kind, so this will not present you with any issues whereas some of the courses offered by our competitors do not have enough credits to work with everyone.

In terms of Language, for the Level 3 your level should be B2 or above on the Common European Framework for Languages (CEFR): https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/

In everyday speech, this level might be called “confident”, as in “I am a confident English speaker”. The official level descriptor is “upper intermediate”. At this level, students can function independently in a variety of academic and professional environments in English, although with a limited range of nuance and precision.

If you are unsure, you can test your English here for free : https://www.efset.org/quick-check/take-test

At level 3 you can use the same certificate for more than one language, regardless of the language you take the exam in. This means we normally recommend students to take the exam in their strongest language combination.

Interpreting agencies may ask for additional proof of your language abilities in addition to your interpreting qualifications

At Level 6 DPSI, you will need a separate qualification for each language.

No. Levels 1 and 2 are aimed at voluntary (unpaid) interpreters.

You do not need to have completed any of the lower levels to take level 3 as all of the content from Levels 1 and 2 are covered at Level 3.