ONE of the north's largest interpreting and translation companies has launched the first in telephone interpreting service in Northern Ireland.
Diversity, headed up by Bulgarian native, Paolina Hawthorne, has invested over £25,000 in the new service, which offers clients access to over 250 supported languages via a simple telephone call.
Ms Hawthorne said the telephone service is a response to increasing interest for ‘on demand’ interpreting.
"Over the phone interpretation is one of the most convenient forms of interpretation available to businesses thanks to its convenience and cost-effectiveness, however until now there has been a gap in the market for an easy-to-use, reliable telephone interpretation service provider," she said.
“Our new service will be available 24/7, enabling clients to instantly access hundreds of languages from qualified interpreters. This is especially important in connecting community groups, emergency services and many others at a time when they need it urgently, and opens the path of communication between foreign nationals, organisations and businesses.”
Established in 2010, Diversity has grown into a major player in the translation and interpreting sector, delivering services to over 1,700 clients in the past nine years, and training individuals to become accredited interpreters.
The company now operates a database of 500 fully qualified interpreters offering 66 different languages, with 40 full time registered linguistics currently dedicated to the interpreting of Arabic in Northern Ireland. The launch of the new telephone interpreting service will significantly expand Diversity’s language offering.
Diversity specialises in the provision of accredited training programmes and to date, Paolina has personally trained over 350 people to become interpreters. The company is the only business to operate a Chartered Institute of Linguistics exam centre in Northern Ireland.
