The first micro-credential course for translation and interpretation of Russian and Ukrainian, organized by the UA's Torrevieja branch, begins on Friday.

This coming Friday, November 7, at 4:00 p.m., at the UA headquarters in Torrevieja, located in the Virgen del Carmen Cultural Center, the first UA microcredential on Russian-Ukrainian translation and interpretation “Fundamentals for the practice of Interpretation in public services” will be inaugurated.

The following are expected to attend this opening ceremony: Ricardo Recuerdo, Councillor for Universities and Education of the Torrevieja City Council; Catalina Iliescu, Vice-Rector for University Extension, Culture and Sports of the UA; Larissa, Director of the University Extension Secretariat of the UA; Juan-Miguel Ortega-Herráez, Director of the microcredential, as well as Elena Pérez-Estevan and Silvia Sánchez-Ferre, coordinators of the same.

These are university studies, new to Torrevieja, aimed mainly at people with advanced knowledge of less widely spoken languages, preferably Russian and Ukrainian, who wish to acquire initial training in interpretation and translation, as well as people who are working as interpreters in intrasocial contexts/public services and do not have academic training in interpretation.

This micro-credential will offer applied theoretical and practical training with a strong professional focus for interpreting in public services. The aim is to equip students with the necessary skills and technical abilities to handle interpreting assignments on a variety of topics typical of public services, especially those managed or provided by local and municipal authorities, with a minimum level of confidence.

Throughout its 100 teaching hours, which can be validated for 10 ECTS (optional or free configuration credits), students will be able to acquire knowledge and develop skills that will allow them to have a professional framework of reference and guarantee the rights of non-speaking citizens in access to public services, as well as face-to-face university training.

The classes will be held in person in Torrevieja, starting on November 7th and ending on February 27th, 2026. They will take place on Fridays from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM and Saturdays from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. The faculty is interdisciplinary, inter-university, and professional, drawing from the University of Alicante, as well as other universities such as the University of Granada (UGR), the Jaume I University (UJI), the University of La Laguna (ULL), and the University of Murcia (UM), the business sector, and also includes municipal technicians.

IMPORTANT UKRAINIAN AND RUSSIAN COLONY IN TORREVIEJA

The province of Alicante in general, and municipalities like Torrevieja, Ciudad Quesada, and Orihuela in particular, are characterized by their strong multicultural and multilingual nature. It ranks third nationally in terms of foreign resident population, both in relative and absolute terms. In the Vega Baja region, the foreign population reaches 36%, and half of it (49.5%) is concentrated in Torrevieja and Orihuela. In the case of Torrevieja, with a population exceeding 110,000, 49.74% of residents come from 122 different countries, with the Ukrainian (over 10,000), Russian (over 6,000), and British (over 5,000) communities being the largest, in that order.

Given this situation, the use of professional interpreters is an optimal option for bridging the linguistic and cultural gap in access to public services for non-native speakers. However, there seems to be a lack of awareness regarding the added value that professional interpreters can bring to communication between public service providers and these non-native groups. At best, linguistic intermediation methods are used, which involve some overlap of professional functions and rely on personnel who do not always have specific training in interpreting.