Validation des acquis – Validation of your (work) experience

Another thing which is driving me completely crazy right now:

In France you need to have the diploma/degree that fits your job. See, I did fashion design and got a degree, but I never worked as a fashion designer. I worked in retail, then wholesale. For over 10 years I worked in international trading. Well, do you think that is sufficient to get a job in this field in France? NO, of course not! You see, I don’t have a degree in International trading… Therefore my CV will go straight to the bin if I apply for any international trading jobs.

I have lived in the UK for nearly 20 years, and I will blow my own trumpet by saying I think my English is pretty good, even close to excellent. I can certainly teach a few tricks in that language to a few people. I even used to correct an English colleague’s mistakes in my last job, when she had to do some chasing letters to some of our clients who thought that paying a bill was not for them… In one of my jobs working for an international company I had to translate a fair few documents from French to English so they could be used in the UK for marketing and sales.

So do you think my English level is sufficient to try to become a translator even if I stick to what I know, what I have studied and which industries I have worked in? Of course not. I don’t have the French Degree that says I can translate! I had better not tell them I have done it before otherwise I may get arrested! I am not saying that being bilingual makes you a born translator, but it will help a lot and it will help even more if you know the culture of the country you are translating from.

For information, it is not compulsory for those people who get those lovely degrees to go abroad for more than 6 months at a time to learn the lingo! They are encouraged to go abroad as much as possible, to study there, and possibly work there. They have to do some training there for up to 6 months in one visit but it does not seem obligatory to spend more than 6 weeks in the country whose language you are learning! Am I dreaming??

Well I will try to do the work anyway with or without a diploma, in the same manner I started to teach some kids some English with a different view than the lovely “Education Nationale”. At least parents do not seem to mind that I don’t have the degree, but when trying to approach businesses, it is a different matter.

So should I pay to do the validation (oh yes, you DO have to pay to get the bit of paper!)? Going to some French bureaucrat who has never been abroad and who will decide if my English is Shakespearian enough… Give good money I could use to do more repairs on our house, set up a proper bathroom, just to prove I can speak English and I can use it in a business manner? Well I will try without as I just do not have the money to spend in this idiotic manner and I am probably way too stubborn to even want to try to fit in the system.