Celebrating 12 years of the Translation Challenge Awards

We wrapped up the 12th Translation Challenge on 29 May 2025 with an online meeting. For over a decade, this unique competition has brought together universities, real clients, and industry professionals to give translation students something they rarely get in a classroom: the chance to work on a real project with real expectations.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐫.

The challenge asked students from four major Turkish universities to take on a genuine client project. Translation students from Ege University, Dokuz Eylul University, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen Üniversitesi, Atatürk Üniversitesi took part in the competition, supported and encouraged by their lecturers; Prof. Selin Erkul Yağcı, Şeyda Eraslan, Erkan Aydın, Merve Engin Kurt.

The brief wasn’t theoretical. It was a real e-commerce client and the students were tasked with localising some the landing pages.

But it wasn’t just about translating. From the start, students were expected to work as a professional translation team, including a project manager, translator, reviser, and proofreader. They used CAT tools and translation management systems (TMS) of their choice for the project.

𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬

Each group was required to submit four key deliverables:
► A finalised Turkish translation file ready for integration into the client’s CMS.
► A bilingual Word file exported from the translation system they used, with English and Turkish segments side by side.
► A completed quality assurance checklist.
► A project report outlining each stage of their process, including a problem they faced and how they solved it.

To qualify, teams had to submit all files together and on time, just as they would in a real client relationship. Some groups even documented internal debates around word choices — and the extra effort spent to reach consensus on terminology.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬

👉 Olga Hergül, Localisation Program Manager at Sisecam, shared valuable insights on career development in localisation and introduced students to Women in Localization. Her practical advice and clarity on the skills that matter most in today’s fast-paced industry were a highlight of the session.

👉 Nadio Granata, educator and author, shared his thoughtful perspectives on AI’s impact on communication, education, and content creation. His message encouraged students not to fear AI, but to embrace it with critical thinking and creativity.

And thank you to the TTC wetranslate Ltd team for making this happen another year.

🙏 𝑨 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌-𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒔.

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