The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd (known as NAATI) is the national standards and accreditation body for translators and interpreters in Australia. NAATI's mission, as outlined in the NAATI Constitution, is to set and maintain high national standards in translating and interpreting to enable the existence of a pool of accredited translators and interpreters responsive to the changing needs and demography of the Australian community. The core focus of the company is issuing credentials (known as accreditations or recognitions) for practitioners who wish to work as translators and interpreters in Australia.
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Current Structure
NAATI is a non-for-profit company that is jointly owned by the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments of Australia. It is governed by a board of directors who are appointed by the members.
The members of NAATI are the nine ministers who are responsible for multicultural affairs and/or citizenship in the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments. Members may appoint a representative to exercise any of their powers in relation to NAATI. These Member Representatives are separate to the NAATI board of directors.
The current members of NAATI include:
Operational functions
NAATI provides eight key services to assist individuals gain and maintain a credential to work as a translator or interpreter in Australia. These services include:
There are two types of NAATI credentials – accreditation and recognition.
NAATI accreditation is an acknowledgement that an individual has demonstrated the ability to meet the professional standards required by the translation and interpreting industry. NAATI assesses practitioners and aspiring translators and interpreters against these standards so that English speaking and non-English speaking Australians can interact effectively with each other.
There are a couple of different ways you can gain NAATI accreditation, including:
NAATI recognition is granted in emerging languages or languages with very low community demand for which NAATI does not offer accreditation. The granting of NAATI recognition is an acknowledgement that an individual has recent and regular experience as a translator and/or interpreter with no defined skill level.
NAATI approved courses are tertiary translation and interpreting qualifications (diploma-level or higher) conducted by individual VET and Higher Education institutions that are acknowledged by NAATI as teaching and assessing the skills and knowledge required by the industry. Where a qualification at an educational institution holds NAATI approval, students who complete the qualification and assessment at the standard required by NAATI may apply for NAATI accreditation without further testing by NAATI.
Revalidation is the established process by which translators and interpreters with accreditation and recognition demonstrate at regular intervals that they are active and committed to the translating and interpreting industry. Before the expiry of an accreditation or recognition, practitioners are required to provide evidence of continuing work practice and professional development to revalidate their credentials for a further three-year period.
NAATI offices in all states and territories of Australia also run various workshops for candidates to assist them in successfully obtaining their accreditation, and cover such topics as:
Outline of NAATI credentials
Under NAATI's current system, there are ten different types of credentials. These are listed in the table below.
NAATI translator accreditation (professional level or higher) is usually awarded in one of the following directions:
NAATI interpreter accreditations (at all levels) are awarded in both directions.
Occasionally, NAATI has awarded accreditation in a language combination that does not feature English at the Conference Interpreter or Advanced Translator level e.g. Advanced Translator French to German or Conference Interpreter (Senior) French to/from Russian. This sort of accreditation can only be awarded on the basis of a professional membership of an international association such as AIIC or AITC.
NAATI and migration
NAATI accreditation can help people wishing to migrate to Australia in a number of ways:
NAATI is the assessing authority for the occupations of translator and interpreter in accordance with the Migration Regulations 1994. If you apply for a skills assessment (ie. an accreditation), NAATI will assess your skills as "suitable" or "not suitable" for your nominated occupation (i.e. translator or interpreter) against established standards (i.e. NAATI professional-level accreditation or higher).