Responsibility for our community

We provide an active programme of charitable support and promote foreign language learning actively through school and university partnership programmes including the RWS Campus and the RWS-Brode Scholarship Programme.

The RWS Foundation

We provide an active programme of charitable support and promote foreign language learning actively through school and university partnership programmes including the RWS Campus and the RWS-Brode Scholarship Programme.
 
Our philanthropic initiatives have been consolidated under the new RWS Foundation. Donations by RWS and the RWS Foundation this year amounted to about £467,000. RWS encourages its colleagues to volunteer in the community and five working days can be taken annually to get involved in charitable initiatives. Over 800 volunteering days were taken in FY23.
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Supporting humanitarian efforts

We are thankful that our teams around the world remain safe.

It has been very important to us as a company to support wider humanitarian efforts and we are immensely proud of all the work our colleagues are doing, as well as volunteering personal time to support people affected by conflict and extreme weather conditions.

Our colleagues, through The RWS Foundation Türkiye Appeal, raised over £7,500 to support the people affected by the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. Their donations went to the International Red Cross ‘Türkiye appeal fund’ as well as Ahbap (a local Turkish charity) to enable these organisations to ensure that the people affected had access to essential supplies, food, water, as well as first aid and shelter.

The Foundation also made further donations to the DEC Earthquake appeal, UNICEF, the UN’s children’s fund, Ahbap and the International Red Cross.

RWS Campus

RWS Campus is our pioneering, global University programme with a clear mission: We aim to inspire great futures in localisation and to be recognised in our industry for developing localisation talent and markets worldwide. We have a global presence, interacting with more than 700 Academic Institutions in more than 80 countries. We work with160+ interns globally each year.

Over the five years’ since RWS Campus was officially launched as our global University Programme, we have been working to bring as many benefits as possible to the academic world. Over the years, we have progressed in our ambition to be a future talent incubator and to bring the benefits of translation technology to universities and students, in order to help bridge the gap between the academic world and industry. We are delighted to offer our professional expertise to universities, lecturers and students across the world, in line with their local requirements and expectations.

We believe that the future generation of localisation professionals are key to support the future direction of the industry. RWS Campus is our forum for sharing and discussing industry realities and technological advances with the academic world. This is more important than ever in the fast-moving technological world we are working in today.

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RWS Scholarship Programme with The University of Manchester (UK)

In 2019 we launched the RWS-Brode Scholarship Programme – named after our Chairman, Andrew Brode – in collaboration with the University of Manchester, to encourage students to complete a degree in modern languages. Since its launch, we have supported more than 50 students through the scholarship programme, and connected with many more through other events and initiatives.

This year saw the first group of scholars finish their undergraduate degree, and in July we were honoured to be able to join them for their graduation ceremony and to meet with them to learn about their experiences and future plans.

There are 40 scholarship recipients currently studying at the University, and Andrew Brode and The RWS Foundation have pledged funding to support a further 30 students who will begin their studies in the academic years starting September 2023 and September 2024.

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CLEAR Global

CLEAR Global (formerly Translators without Borders) was selected as the Foundation’s first beneficiary of 2023.
 
CLEAR Global is a non-profit global community of linguists who help people in need to get vital information and be heard, whatever language they speak.
 
During FY23 we assisted them with a number of projects supporting people in crisis following natural disasters and in areas of conflict, for example, localising Polish and Slovak into Ukrainian.
 
RWS is supporting CLEAR Global by working closely with them, sharing resources and providing support with our own network of in-house translators.
 
Ongoing support includes translating, localising and reviewing critical content, managing large-scale projects, providing training to translators and members, and analysing data to ensure the highest translation standards are maintained. RWS has also made its machine translation post-editing course freely available to CLEAR Global’s 100,000 strong community of translators, giving them the tools and skills they need to improve the standard of translation projects.

Increasing accessibility for blind translators

The RWS Foundation is partnering with the RWS Trados team to enable over 1,000 blind translators to work independently.
 
The project centers on making the next version of Trados Studio accessible for visually impaired translators. This accessibility enhancement aims to bridge the gap in the translation industry, providing visually impaired individuals the opportunity to contribute their skills, become self-sufficient, and unlock their potential as translation professionals.
 
The initiative is being driven by a dedicated, cross-functional team and, given the scope and complexity of the project, resources are also being allocated from different areas of the software development team based on expertise and project requirements.
 
The team is anchored by a subject matter expert quality assurance (QA) specialist, Anna Rita de Bonis, a PhD candidate from the University of International Studies of Rome (UNINT) programme. Anna Rita has collaborated with the RWS Trados Studio development and QA teams previously, and provides a deep understanding of the needs of visually impaired users. She is providing critical insights into the user experience of this community, playing a key role in engagement efforts, and ensuring that the user experience – right from initial contact through onboarding to daily use – is seamless, intuitive, and empowering for visually impaired translators.
 
The project is expected to take nine months and the completed accessibility features will be incorporated into the upcoming major release of Trados Studio.

RWS gives back to Indore community

Because of its community ties, a long history in Indore and enthusiasm among our colleagues for a transformational project that will have tangible benefits for local people for years to come, RWS has got involved in supporting The Christian Hospital, Indore. 

Starting as a small medical clinic in 1887, The Community Hospital has grown to provide services to more than 10,000 patients every year. This community-based hospital provides low-cost care to people from all social and economic backgrounds, with an emphasis on care for women and children as well as a focus on the poor, underprivileged and marginalized. 

The modernized and renovated operating theatre offers The Christian Hospital’s doctors, nurses and patients many functional and medical benefits, including the ability to perform complex surgical procedures. Medical staff will also have access to the latest imaging and x-ray technology that can be used during surgery, reducing the risk of patient complications.

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RWS helps children learn with school meal support

Hungry children struggle to feed their hungry minds. It’s long been understood that unless young learners are properly fed that they are not going to get the most out of their lessons. That’s the driving ethos behind the RWS partnership with The Akshaya Patra Foundation: making sure primary schoolchildren in an Udaipur school get at least one square meal a day during term-time so they can make the most of their education.
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