M+E Europe

AVTpro is the first-ever professional certification in media localisation.

It is an industry-wide initiative endorsed by several media localisers and powered by OOONA with the goal of developing a professional qualification in media localisation that reflects the industry’s evolving needs and which is recognised and accepted as a badge of quality and competence.

The AVTpro certification initiative is supported by experienced translation professionals, researchers and academics who have been instrumental in its development.

With funding from ten inaugural sponsors and after more than one year in the making, the AVTpro Certification was successfully launched in late 2023. It provides candidates with the opportunity to be assessed in and showcase their skills and experience in two core media localisation tasks: Subtitle Translation and Subtitle Creation. More certifications are envisaged in the future as the industry needs evolve.

“A professional certification in media localisation was a must for a mature and continuously growing industry such as ours,” says Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Professor of Translation Studies at University College London, who spearheaded the AVTpro initiative. “It has been a privilege for me to lead the design and development of AVTpro and I am thankful to the incredible team of professionals who have joined me in this effort. I am thrilled to see this project come to fruition!”

“The first exam period of the AVTpro Subtitle Translation Certification closed before the end of 2023 and covered four language pairs: English into French, German, Italian and Castilian Spanish,” adds Andrew Garb, AVTpro Project Manager. “We would like to congratulate Karen Degrave, the first translator to be awarded the Subtitle Translation Certificate for the English to French language pair, who passed the exam with distinction.”

“The response from professionals has confirmed the market need for such a certification, so we are already working hard to make new language pairs available to satisfy demand,” he continues. “The AVTpro Subtitle Creation Certification opens in FIGS at the next exam period in April 2024, while nine additional language pairs will also be rolled out this year for both certifications: English into Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Chinese Simplified and Traditional, Indonesian, Japanese and Turkish.”

For more information about the certification, visit the AVTpro website.