40 Government Translators Take Part in 2nd TOEFL Short Preparation Course

Deputy to the Cabinet Secretary for Cabinet Work Support Yuli Harsono delivers his remarks during the opening ceremony of a two-day paper-based TOEFL Preparation Short Course in Bandung, West Java, Thursday (13/7). (Photo by: Public Relations Division/Agung)

Cabinet Secretariat on Thursday (13/7) at Holiday Inn Hotel in Bandung, West Java, held the second batch of two-day paper-based TOEFL Preparation Short Course, with the first one being held on 22-24 May this year.

At least 40 translators from 9 central government institutions and 6 regional governments took part in the training, which is aimed at assisting Indonesian Government Translators (known as Pejabat Fungsional Penerjemah/Translator Functional Officials) to prepare the English Skill Competence Test for Government Translators (Uji Kompetensi Penerjemahan Kemahiran Berbahasa Inggris) scheduled to be held next year.

In his remarks, Eko Harnowo, Assistant to the Deputy Cabinet Secretary for State Documents and Translation, a unit within Cabinet Secretariat tasked to hold the test, said,  “We believe the participation of the translators in this training is motivated by a strong willingness to make progress in English skill, as one of the fundamental aspects in doing good translation jobs.”

In the meantime, Deputy to the Cabinet Secretary for Cabinet Work Support Yuli Harsono, who also attended the opening ceremony of the training, said that the Translator Functional Position is categorized as a skilled position group, meaning that a translator has to have language skills and aptitude, be it Indonesian language and foreign languages, as well as skills in translations.

Yuli also said that the Competence Test is a new requirement as regulated by Regulation of the Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reforms Number 49 of 2014 on Translator Functional Position and Regulation of Head of the National Civil Service Agency (BKN) Number 21 of 2016 on Technical Guidance of the Development of Translator Functional Position. Under the Regulation, he added, every Functional Translator Official is required to take and pass the Competence Test as one of the prerequisites for promotion.

Therefore, Yuli added, the training is expected to measure the skills of the translators, especially English skills and to assist the translators to prepare for the Test and to pass the Test and with good results.

Yuli further said that Cabinet Secretariat holds the training three times in order to give wide opportunities to all Functional Translator Officials to participate in the training. He also said that as a fostering institution, Cabinet Secretariat is obliged to assist the translators not only to pass the test but also to have skills in English language.”We have invited two trainers (for this training). We hope that they will share their knowledge about English not only to give motivation to the participants to pass the Competence Test but to also be competent in English language.” Yuli said, adding that the Competence Test is a new thing for Cabinet Secretariat as a fostering institution of Translator Functional Position.

“We consider the Competence Test and to pass the Test as the output, while the outcome is for the translators to have competence in English in order to facilitate cooperation between government institutions with international partners,” Yuli said.

“Cabinet Secretariat is tasked to facilitate correspondence in English for the President in his correspondence with other world leaders,” he added.

Yuli further said that competence is indeed of great importance. As an institution that provides translation services to the President, Yuli added, Cabinet Secretary is fully aware of the importance of language skills, be it the Indonesian language skill or foreign language skill, especially English, as a foundation to do both good translating and interpreting jobs. Therefore, he reminded that having competence is a must for the translators and the Competence Test becomes a benchmark to measure language skills of those translators.    (MA/AGG/ES) (EP/YM/Naster)