Hope I'm writing in the right forum if not please move this thread.
My wife is about to finish her apprenticeship as a "Kauffrau EFZ" here in Switzerland.
As she is applying for english speaking jobs all around the world, she needs to know the exact translation of her "title" in english.
We find this quite difficult and have tried the usual online translators (Pons, Langenscheidt, google) but they give us too many options. "Merchant, Clerk, Businesswoman"....just to name the most common.
But which one is it? None of these sound quite right as a "Kauffrau" is a very broad diploma, covering many things (basics of finance, basics of business administration (economics), basics of swiss law and so on).
Any information in regards to this would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.
No, not a buyer. Though depending on which company you do your commercial apprenticeship, you may do a stint of purchasing too.
Would be interested to see a translation too as that's one of my qualifications - involving business management, accounting, law, business correspondence, etc.
I'm a little confused .... if she's been doing an apprenticeship, she (+you) must have known what this was working towards regarding a qualification in a particular field - without the need for a translation from German to English ..... or is this qualification specific only to the German speaking world?
well the way my wifes cv is set up she uses the commercial apprenticeship in the education section. in her work experience section she would like to have the actual title....maybe she just has to think the layout of her cv over.
Well the thing is, she's swiss. so she knows very well what this apprenticeship is about. The problem is not the actual apprenticeship, its just the translation of the title to use in an english job application.
My point is: if I was to do an apprenticeship on how to install water pipes in a house, I would know the job at the end would be sanitär (DE, colloquial), plombier (FR) and plumber, without having to translate.
I've been here six years, and know more than a handful of people that have done such an apprentice, and still can't come up with a good one-word translation for the term. To my knowledge, we don't have an equivalent program in the English speaking world - probably because we don't do that many apprenticeships outside of the trades (electrician, etc.). Next question: if you were to do such an apprenticeship in English, Timow, would you also know automatically know the Spanish translation? And perhaps the Mandarin?
Clerk would be about the best translation I can come up with, though I understand that there are various aspects of business administration studies involved, such as as accounting and so on.
You would be a clerk seems like a pretty simple question, why not ask your wife which translation is the best since she is the one that has done the course.
Your thread title is a little misleading and that's why you got some of the reactions you got above. Its not that she doesn't know what she is qualified to do, she wants to know how to express it on an English CV, right?
The problem is not the translation - its the basis of the qualification. Its a pretty reductive and old fashioned term that no English speaking company would use any longer. And even clerk wouldn't be often used.
So I'd suggest using a term like "business administration" but then - if it is for jobs here in Switzerland - just put the German title of the course afterwards in brackets. Most HR people here who are the type of people who will screen CVs and applications are native speakers, so they'll understand
That's a tricky one because in the English speaking world the concept of "Ausbildung" is not widely known in terms of vocational or administrative training. How about "merchant"?