A certified translation is a translation of a document from one language to another by a professional translator with assurances that he or she is knowledgeable in both languages in order to translate the document.

A certified translation is generally accompanied by a signed statement from the translator or translation company which affirms that the translation of the original document is complete and accurate.

A certified translation usually requires some type of certification. If in doubt, it is best to contact the requesting party to confirm the type of certification required.

One of our previous articles briefly touched on the topic of certified translations, so let’s now delve deeper into what else you need to know about certified translations.

Why do translations need to be certified?

Certified translations are one of the most common types of translations. Translations need to be certified for a wide variety of reasons, especially when the reasons are legal in nature and involves the law.

To discourage transgressions of the law, translations need to be certified in order to account for the validity and accuracy of the translation. This certification helps to ensure and provides the assurance that documents are not forged or contain incorrect information.

Certified translations also help speed up administrative and bureaucratic processes, as any documents produced in the reviewer’s native language can be understood at a faster rate.

What is a certified translation used for?

The following are a few examples of what a certified translation might be used for.

Most of the time, certified translations are used for legal paperwork, such as documentation for trials and hearings. For example, any evidence (such as transcripts or e-mails) in another language would need to be translated and certified. Translations also need to be certified when official documents are required to be submitted to government bodies, such as birth, death or marriage certificates.

Application to universities and jobs may also require certified translations of official documents such as diplomas and transcripts.

Immigration is another area where certified translations are needed. If you are applying for residency in a foreign country, it is most likely that all official documents need to be submitted in that country’s official language – therefore the translations of the documents need to be certified.

As you can see, it’s important to ensure that your certified translations are accurate and valid, because the law is almost always involved when certified translations are required. This is a serious matter and not to be taken lightly. Therefore, you have to choose the right translation service to work with, in order to provide you with the assurance that the translations of your documents are valid.

Verztec Consulting is well poised to provide Professional Translation Services that is fine-tuned to your corporate and individual needs. With more than a decade of experience in the localization industry, Verztec hires native, in-country translation teams who possess subject domain expertise pertaining to its clients’ products and industry to help clients across 26 industry sectors.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 to talk to us about your translation needs.

Far is a Senior Editor at Verztec Consulting. Writing and reading are two of her greatest passions in life. When she’s not writing, she either spends her time curling up in bed with a good book and a delicious mug of hot chocolate, or fantasizing about opening up a bookstore café in the future.

Website development involves the technical aspects of making a website functional, while website design is concerned with how a website looks. With that in mind, let’s see who can do website development.

Anyone Can Start a Website Today

Starting your own website can be as easy as a few clicks. There are numerous DIY web templates available, some free others via subscription. These templates come with relatively basic features which are best suited for sites with a couple of pages, requiring limited customization and which do not expect to have high volumes of web traffic.

However, for most businesses and organizations, or for anyone who expect web traffic growth, they will want a full-fledged website that is capable of more customized functions.

So let’s focus on what a fully-customizable website requires—a professional web developer.

Developing a Website from Scratch

Having unique ideas or sleek features on your website requires more than mock-ups and pretty layouts. Your web developer will need to know what code is best suited to support a given feature, and whether it works well with other code written for your website.

‘HTML’, ‘CSS’ and More

Being well-versed in HTML and CSS is a pre-requisite for any web developer, but developing a website requires more than these. Web developers who are proficient in database and server-side scripting will be required to develop a fully-functional website; one that receives updates and integrates with web services and databases. What’s more, websites need to display and function optimally on mobile devices, so a web developer will have to be familiar with mobile website frameworks and ensure that features and layouts can be readily adapted to a variety of devices without limiting key functionalities.

It’s Showtime but that’s Not the End

Getting your website live isn’t the end of a project. Websites need to receive ongoing support with special attention paid to security and performance issues. From malware to hackers, viruses to system crashes; websites have to be kept secure while ensuring robust performance. A web developer with expertise in security and system administration, and who will be on hand to monitor your website is therefore a valuable addition to any website development team.

Web Developer as Consultant

The average web developer is able to assemble a website from scratch. However, not any developer is in a position to offer advice from a strategic viewpoint; how best to structure a website based on your current and future KPIs for the website for example. Having a web developer who goes beyond order taking and instead contributes in the capacity of a consultant will therefore be beneficial.

Getting the Right Team for the Job

Depending on the complexity of a website, multiple specialists may be required, each working on one specific aspect of a website. Websites which call on web applications may require developers with proficiencies in web services and application programming interfaces. While websites which require CRM capabilities will require developers with working knowledge of CRM integration and related expertise. If your website is based on a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, then a developer with working knowledge of a language like PHP (the language behind WordPress) may be required.

Website development goes beyond the technicalities. From proposal and ideation to development and launch; developing a website requires holistic project management that aligns with your goals, budget and timelines.

How Verztec can Help You

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Company that offers website development and localization services in over 100 languages, supporting companies across various industry sectors, in addition to having expertise in communication design. Verztec applies its diverse expertise to serving clients’ specific needs by taking a bird’s eye view of clients’ strategic needs and organizing the relevant expertise which work as one unified unit to achieve the objectives of clients.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for a discussion on website development solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.

About the Writer

Jonathan is an Editor at Verztec Consulting. Coffee and travel photos may get him hyped up for conversations. Alternatively, simply toss him an idea or two for a storyboard or a write-up on technology, design and marketing.

With today’s ever-changing business environment, there’s an imperative need to continually learn and equip ourselves with the latest skill sets and know-how in order to succeed. Training is one such way to achieve this.

With training, you can improve your employee’s performance and capabilities. A capable and competent worker is indeed crucial to the success of any organization; add training to that equation, and you have a guaranteed way of bolstering your organization’s continued success. After all, an employee who continually improves and becomes more capable is always better than one who remains stagnant.

If you are looking to develop content or a curriculum for a training course, it would be beneficial to learn how to develop effective training properly. Investing in training can be costly, which is why it’s so important to get the steps correct so as to avoid wasting time, money and valuable resources.

To develop a training course, here’s a five-step model you can closely follow:

Step 1: Analyze (Assess training needs)

Training may be needed when organizations have identified something to be lacking in their employees. There could be a gap between the desired performance and the current performance, and the reason for that gap could be an outdated skill or knowledge. However, training may not always be the answer or may only resolve part of the problem, so a proper analysis of the situation is required. You can conduct a “Training Needs Assessment” to determine if a training need exists, and if it does, what kind of training is required to meet that need.

 

Step 2: Design (Outline the objectives)

If training is necessary, you should define the objectives that you wish to achieve from training. Will these objectives help to fill the gap you have identified at Step 1 and turn your employees into more effective workers? Create training outlines and training plans for your course. Outlines provide a strong foundation for content development, as they help you organize your thoughts and content better.

 

Step 3: Develop (Create your training materials)

Now you will get down to the actual content development of your training materials, which are an important part of any training course. Examples of training materials include trainee’s manual, facilitator’s guide, handouts, visual aids, and so on. It’s important that your content are presented in an engaging manner, in order to appeal to different learning styles as well as to retain the learner’s interest.

Step 4: Implement

This is when you will carry out your actual training course. Hire a trainer who will be able to successfully carry out the objectives you wish to achieve through training. A good trainer is not only someone who has the necessary qualifications and experience – they should also have other qualities such as strong communication skills, in order to engage the participants.

 

 

Step 5: Evaluate (Refine and revise your course)

After the training course is over, you should evaluate every component of the course, such as the effectiveness of the course, feedback from the participants, etc. Evaluation checks ascertain whether training has had the desired effect and whether your initial objectives have been achieved. With these evaluations, you can further refine and improve your course for the future.

Unless you have a dedicated learning and development department, it is much more efficient and cost-effective to entrust the development of your training course to a learning solutions provider. The right training & development partner can customize a training solution that best suits your needs, and help your team succeed.

Verztec Consulting is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Company. VerztecLearning™, the Learning Solutions arm of Verztec Consulting, is a leader in custom blended learning and online training for soft skills, business skills and IT skills. With a suite of training options ranging from classroom training to e-learning, VerztecLearning™ offers innovative learning solutions that are specially crafted based on its robust learning and development capabilities, as well as in-depth knowledge of various industries. From your project’s initiation to its completion, VerztecLearning™ will work with you at every stage of the process to address your strategic training needs, thanks to a trusted 360-Degree Learning Methodology.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 to talk to us about your learning and development needs.

About the Writer

Far is a Senior Editor at Verztec Consulting. Writing and reading are two of her greatest passions in life. When she’s not writing, she either spends her time curling up in bed with a good book and a delicious mug of hot chocolate, or fantasizing about opening up a bookstore café in the future.

With the array of tools and software in the market, it seems just about anyone can do website design, or can they? What actually needs to be taken into account when designing a website? To answer these questions, we’ll first need to understand what website design really requires.

Let’s have a quick look at several factors which contribute to an appealing and effective website design.

Meaningful User Interface and Well-Crafted User Experience

If graphic design is about how a website looks, user experience design or UX design is concerned with how users feel when they interact with a website and its user interface (UI) elements; from scrolling, navigation, and more. A website’s design will benefit from insights into how a user will interact with proposed designs. These insights may require research and recommendations from dedicated specialists which the average website designer may not be qualified for.

Website Design Needs to Be Responsive

How a website is experienced gets influenced by how it is displayed across various devices; from desktops to mobile devices. A website designer will have to visualize how a given design will appear and be experienced across devices, and optimize the design accordingly. Simply put, attention to responsive design is now a prerequisite for website design.

A Design that Blends with Your Brand

Let’s say we have assembled an appealing and responsive website design. Does it reflect your personal or corporate brand? Do the visuals and colour scheme of the website design reflect your brand or are they just merely appealing? While certain colour schemes of a website design may be effective and user-friendly, these may or may not be aligned with your brand identity. Will the designated website designers take these into consideration and can they strike a balance?

Optimized for SEO

Having a beautifully design website that reflects your brand but which receives little to no traffic will not support your objectives for the site either. Whoever is designing the website has to be guided by SEO considerations. Based on an SEO audit, you may find that certain user interface elements and content need to be adjusted, and these may have implications for the overall design of your website.

Optimized for Conversions

Whether it is CRM, lead nurturing, or sales, your website, like your social media channels, will play an integral part in the process. Your website design has to do its part in facilitating all of the above objectives. But is your website designed for conversions?

The Portfolio

As can be seen, website design requires several expertises which need to be aligned with a website’s overall objectives. Having a team which appreciates the big picture can help you assemble various expertise to achieve very specific objectives.

Does an individual designer or agency have all the required expertise under one roof, with a clear understanding of a website’s overall objectives? Do they have adequate knowledge of current design trends which may impede or facilitate these goals?

Website Design: Beyond Looks

Achieving an appealing and effective website design goes beyond utilizing template designs with adjustments to colour scheme and layout. Instead, it increasingly requires diverse specialists who ‘talk’ to each other and who are aligned on the overall objectives of a website.

All of the above aspects of website design can be effectively accomplished by a team of cross-functional personnel, ranging from graphic designers and copywriters to SEO specialists and marketing personnel. Your graphic designer needs to be aligned with your copywriter, who in turn needs to be aligned with SEO and marketing specialists—these various functions contribute to making a website’s design effective and appealing, and none should be done in isolation.

So who can do website design? The short answer may be that many people can do website design. But who can do it right and make it work?

How Verztec can help you

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Company that offers language services in over 100 languages, supporting companies across various industry sectors, in addition to having expertise in communication design and web development. Verztec applies its diverse expertise to serving clients’ specific needs by taking a bird’s eye view of clients’ strategic needs and organizing the relevant expertise which work as one unified unit to achieve the objectives of clients.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for a discussion on website design solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.

About the Writer

Jonathan is an Editor at Verztec Consulting. Coffee and travel photos may get him hyped up for conversations. Alternatively, simply toss him an idea or two for a storyboard or a write-up on technology, design and marketing.