About HITS

Founded in 2001, Herts Interpreting & Translation Service (HITS) is one of the largest and most successful independent, non-commercial services in the UK.

Managed by the registered charity Community Action Dacorum, HITS provides language support services (face-to-face, video and telephone interpreting, written translation, audio recordings, language assessments) for Health Trusts, Local Authorities, Criminal Justice Agencies, non-statutory sector organisations, commercial and private clients throughout the Home Counties, the East of England, Greater London and beyond.

In-person, via video or telephone, on-demand or pre-scheduled, HITS is able to provide British Sign Language and interpreting services in more than 300 languages or dialects.

Why we do HITS

HITS started as a project run by Community Action Dacorum as a service to support local residents to overcome language barriers.  From these beginnings it has grown to be one of the leading local interpretation services, serving hospitals and local government agencies across the region and beyond.  Yet still at its heart, HITS helps people to communicate with one another better.

Our award-winning training programme helps bring new people into the industry.  We work with bilingual individuals to train them up to be safe to practice interpreting and on to qualifying for a diploma in public service interpreting (DPSI).  We help people to set up their own businesses and employ them directly to give them a career in interpretation.  Recently we have been training Ukrainian guests and Afghani refugees (amongst others) providing them with a much needed lifeline into employment in the UK.

Finally, HITS is a social enterprise.  All of the profits made by the business are used to further our charitable aims in Dacorum and he surrounding area.  By working with HITS, organisations like the NHS make their money go further, purchasing essential services at a competitive rate and knowing that they also fund projects that provide preventive approaches to improve population health, means HITS is the best choice to partner with when choosing an interpretation and translation service.

Train to become an Interpreter

Can you speak two or more languages? Do you want to enhance your language skills, get a new career and help the local community?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you could sign up to one of the courses bring offered by Herts Interpreting & Translation Service.

What do I need?

Trainees should be completely fluent and fully literate in both target languages. Speakers of languages without a written form should be literate in the relevant national language (e.g. Sylheti speakers must be able to read and write Bengali, Pakistani Punjabi speakers must be able to read and write Urdu).

Applicants must be aged 18 or over. They should be both fluent and literate in English and at least one other language. All languages are welcome.

Enthusiasm, the ability to learn, and a proven commitment to helping others is more important than formal qualifications or previous experience.

What will I learn?

This specially designed introductory ‘short-course’ offers a solid grounding in the technical skills (note-taking, glossaries, management of interpreting exchanges, etc) and ethics (confidentiality, impartiality, etc) of public service interpreting, and includes an internally assessed Certificate of Interpreter Proficiency (the minimum level of professional attainment required in order to work for our Service).

To get more information about the course, please see the course page.

What can I do next?

If you want to formalise your learning and want to gain a nationally recognised qualification in public service Interpreting, you can sign up for the Diploma in Public Service Interpret training course:

The Level 6 Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) is the longest-standing and most highly-regarded professional interpreting qualification in the UK.

The DPSI is overseen by the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL).

HITS has been a registered CIOL examination and training centre since 2001.

Since 2001, HITS has entered more than 650 candidates into the DPSI examination in the Health, Local Government and English Law options and its candidates have achieved more than a dozen national awards (see awards and accreditations).

To get more information about the course, please see the course page.