Spanish/English Communication Specialist Certificate of Achievement

Prerequisite: Spanish 4 or placement

This program prepares students to communicate in the workforce with cultural responsiveness and increased Spanish/English linguistic proficiency. Students will gain an understanding of the ethical and professional standards required in various professional settings with an introduction to Spanish/English community interpreting.

Students who earn this certificate may be employed in any field that needs bilingual communication specialists. *

*Examples of specific job titles include: bilingual receptionist, bilingual medical assistant, bilingual community liaison, bilingual instructional assistant, qualified bilingual healthcare staff, bilingual community relations manager, bilingual customer service representative, Spanish/English community interpreter, Spanish/English translator, Spanish/English editor.

The proposed program is completable within 1 year if students enter with the Spanish language requirement completed.

We anticipate that the annual number of students completing the Spanish/English Communication Specialist Certificate will increase gradually each year. The core courses of the program are new and have not yet been offered. There are no data to gauge concrete enrollment and completion projections.

Completer projections for the 2022-2023 year: 8 students 

Enrollment Data

		2020	2020	2021	2021
	CB02: Course Title	Annual # Sections	Annual Enrollment Total	Annual # Sections	Annual Enrollment Total
SPAN070	Spanish for the Professions	New course: NA	0	New course: NA	0
SPAN071	Introduction to Spanish/English Community Interpreting	New course: NA	0	New course: NA	0
SPAN175	Spanish/English Communication Experience Seminar	New course: NA	0	New course: NA	0
BUS092	Business Communication	5	132	3	83
COMM012	Intercultural Communication	2	46	2	59
SPAN004(prerequisite)	Fourth Semester Spanish	1	6	1	15
SPAN003	Third Semester Spanish	2	34	1	36
SPAN002	Second Semester Spanish	4	101	4	112
SPAN001	First Semester Spanish	9	249	6	174

The Spanish/English Communication Specialist Certificate provides practice and further training in Spanish/English dual language skills in preparation for a variety of work opportunities that require bilingual specialist staff, including educational, healthcare, human services, retail and/or specialized business services, and law enforcement settings. 

The program goals fall within “Career Technical Education,” given that the main focus is workforce development and training. Whether students are seeking entry-level employment as recent high school graduates, furthering current career paths, or are pursuing retraining for new career opportunities, the Spanish/English Communication Specialist certificate will afford them more advanced linguistic skills training so that they can meet the following occupational competencies for dual-language communication specialists:

·      High linguistic proficiency in both the source and target languages

·      Ability to render messages effectively and accurately in speaking and writing, while maintaining a professional register and tone

·      Proficiency in specific workplace terminology and vocabulary

·      Clear understanding and adherence to workplace-specific ethical codes of conduct

·      Clear understanding of the different roles available to bilingual staff

The Spanish/English Communication Specialist Certificate is an excellent cross-disciplinary complement to other courses of study at Solano Community College, including Human Services, Office Technology, Business, Medical Assistant, Nursing, Child Development, Criminal Justice, and Education.

 

As stated in the Program Learning Outcomes, students who complete the program coursework with a passing grade (70%) will:

·      Demonstrate a high intermediate/advanced linguistic proficiency (reading, writing, speaking, listening) in the use of Spanish/English specialized vocabulary and grammatical structures applied to various community work environments.

·      Apply cultural responsiveness and linguistic skills to identify and solve potential communication pitfalls in the workforce successfully.

·      Identify, define, and analyze the important differences between interpretation and translation, and articulate the specialized skill-set required of each area.

Spanish/English Communication Specialist

Course Sequence:

Spanish Language Requirement: SPAN 001-004 or Credit for Prior Learning (0-20 units);

Prerequisite: SPAN004. 

Up to two additional years may be required to complete SPAN001-004, if student has no prior knowledge of Spanish. Otherwise, core requirements for the Certificate are comprised of 6 courses for a total of 18 units, including 1 unit of a work experience practicum.

Required Core	Course #	Course Title	Units
	SPAN070	Spanish for the Professions	5
	SPAN071	Introduction to Spanish/English Community Interpreting	5
	SPAN175	Spanish/English Communication Experience Seminar	1
	BUS092	Business Communication	3
	COMM012	Intercultural  Communication	3
	OCED091	General Work Experience	1

Course	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
SPAN070	Spanish for the Professions	5	Y1, Fall (S1)
COMM012	Intercultural Communication	3	Y1, Fall (S1)
SPAN071	Introduction to Spanish/English Community Interpreting	5	Y1, Spring (S2)
SPAN175	Spanish/English Communication Experience Seminar	1	Y1, Spring (S2)
BUS092	Business Communication	3	Y1, Spring (S2)
OCED091	General Work Experience	1	Y1, Spring (S2)

This certificate of achievement along with a second one titled "Spanish/English Healthcare Interpreter Training" that is being proposed separately, are part of a general effort to address requests from students and community members to provide "more advanced" offerings in Spanish to help hone workforce bilingual skills to further career opportunities. Until recently, the Spanish program at SCC, which began in 1971, has offered an AA and an AA-T degrees in Spanish. The emphasis traditionally has been on offering transfer-level education, and the course offerings, SPAN 001-004 have been targeted to the novice-beginner through intermediate-level students. This proposed Spanish/English Communication Specialist Certificate of Achievement addresses an opportunity to engage more closely with the Latino and Spanish-speaking communities, to offer concrete training for bilingual individuals for job enhancement opportunities, and to increase the pool of bilingual communication providers in the county.

There are no other community colleges that offer degrees/ certificates specifically in professional bilingual communication. Although Cal State East Bay does offer a certificate titled “Spanish for the Professions,” there is a substantial geographical distance between the campuses and CSEB is a four-year institution. There is no risk of competition between the two institutions. Based on the LMI report provided by Mr. Carrese, there are two (2) community colleges in the Bay Region that issued 13 awards on average annually (last 3 years ending 2018-19) using the TOP 2140.00 – Legal and Community Interpretation. In the North Bay Sub-Region, there is one (1) community college that issued eight (8) awards on average annually (last 3 years) on this TOP code.