In many different industries, training is essential for ensuring employees can carry out the tasks and duties of their role. This is especially true when it comes to providing safety courses for providers in the transportation, energy, manufacturing, education, and medical fields. With the world ever more global, the need for this course information to be localized in a variety of languages is critical.

People learn best in the language that they speak and understand. Giving them the option to view safety training videos or documentation in their native language will increase the likelihood that information will be retained and used in various on-the-job scenarios. If you’re providing staff with the option to access safety courses in other languages, please keep these tips in mind:

It’s not a straight translation from English.  

And if you’re going to create the course in English first, be sure to keep the language plain and straightforward to give clear, concise instructions that can then be localized (as needed) quickly.

When creating videos, choose your narrator carefully. 

Or, consider shooting the video with native speakers in the languages you will localize to. For example, if you’re localizing for Nigeria, have a Nigerian narrator instead of choosing any narrator who is of African descent. Phrases, tone, and dialect are just as unique to a culture as the language itself. Having the option to choose a voice and accent that is familiar to us and that we can easily understand is a gesture not to be overlooked.

Quick Tip: While video production can be expensive, money saved using teleprompters and timing aids can help your narrators match the timing of their narrations so you can shift your production budget to incorporate native speakers as your narrator without drastically increasing your post-production expenses.

Localize your Content

Determine what images would be universally appropriate to include and try to avoid picking graphics or images that would resonate primarily with an English-speaking audience. You want this information to appeal to a wider, more diverse audience. This can mean making sure your content is culturally accurate in its representation. 

To successfully localize safety course information, it’s best to work directly with a language service provider like LinguaLinx, as we can help you with localizing safety courses across many communication mediums. We have the expertise and a team of native speakers who can communicate this information succinctly and effectively so that all of your intended audiences get the training they need to be safe on the job and to keep others safe, too.