Jeremy Rockliff,Minister for Community Services and Development
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is committed to making sure that all people feel welcome, and we are delivering on our commitment by expanding opportunities for those wishing to accredit as interpreters.
Interpreters play an essential part in delivering government services to people who require language assistance, and our Tasmanian Interpreter Training Scholarship Program is designed to increase the supply and quality of credentialed interpreters, particularly in languages in demand.
Jointly funded with the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters, the scholarships valued at $1000 each will help local interpreters and bi-cultural workers enrol in an online training program through RMIT University.
With over twenty-six thousand Tasmanians speaking a language other than English in the home, over four thousand Tasmanians do not speak English well or at all.
This year, the scholarships are open to interpreters in languages other than English, as well as Auslan, and are available for interpreters and bi-cultural workers in the follow languages: Amharic, Arabic, Auslan, Bislama, Burmese, Cantonese (north), Dari, Farsi, Hakha Chin and Chin dialects, Hazaragi, Japanese, Hindi, Mandarin (north), Oromo, Punjabi, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Tetum, Thai, Tigrinya, Tongan, Urdu and Vietnamese.
We acknowledge Tasmania's diverse multicultural communities are a vital part of our social and economic fabric, and we want to ensure Tasmanians of all cultures have an equal opportunity to belong, contribute, achieve and succeed.
The Scholarships are one of many achievements that are acknowledged and celebrated in most recent report on 'Our Multicultural Island', our State's Plan to ensure a community inclusive of diversity.
They also form part of our recent policy announcement, Supporting our Multicultural Communities, investing $474,000 into initiatives which ensure cultural diversity through participation.
The 2021 Interpreter Training Scholarship Program is now open for Expressions of Interest, and applications will close on 25 June 2021.
