If in the last article we were weighing in the pros and cons of Brexit, seen from the point of view of a translation agency, today we’re going to take a different approach. We are going to take a look at the way Brexit influences the manufacturing industry and why this has an impact on translation agencies that work with technical documents and/or documentation.
This is why we, as a translation agency, only work with highly specialised technical translators who can create an accurate translation of user manuals, schematics, installation instructions, patents, and more.
Now that you understand the reason why technical translators are considered a special category, let’s see how their work is going to be impacted once the UK will leave the European Union.
Brexit Brings an Increase in Industrial Robots
Even though the UK has a strong presence in the manufacturing industries of the world, right now, it has the fewest manufacturing robots among the G10 nations. Specialists seem to think that this slow adoption of automatic work is due to the large number of immigrants who offered businesses access to cheap work.
However, with Brexit, this will also change, especially since a large number of immigrants was one of the reasons people voted for leaving the EU. British authorities are already working on curbing immigration through new laws regarding the right to live and work here as a foreign individual.
While some companies may consider offering the vacant jobs to locals, the low wages may not be too attractive for the new workforce. So, when the number of immigrants will drop, companies will be forced to reconsider investment in modern technology.
As a result, the country will see an increase in manufacturing robots (especially in the food industry where most repetitive tasks are performed manually).
More Projects for Technical Translators
This move has a powerful impact on the UK manufacturing industries and the job market, but it also has a positive effect on technical translators and agencies such as Translations123.
Most robots and other similar machines are produced by Chinese, Taiwanese, or Japanese developers. While some will come with instructions and user manuals in most international languages, there are still documentation elements that must be processed by a specialised translator.
Also, businesses will need help from linguists to create tutorials for employees, integration papers, and other important documents. Not to mention that the same businesses will have to invest in training their employees in using, monitoring, and troubleshooting these robots.
Overall, once Brexit happens and the UK gets new laws regarding immigrants’ access to jobs and benefits, the tables will turn in favour of automatization.