The Victorian Government's language services policy recognises bilingual staff as part of language services but does not elaborate on how they can be used. The following report presents key findings, recommendations and guidelines for recruiting, employing and working with bilingual staff.

The Victorian Multicultural Commission, VMC (formerly the Victorian Office of Multicultural Affairs) funded CEH to develop a set of guidelines to assist Victorian Government departments and funded agencies in the recruitment and employment of bilingual staff. VMC sought this information to fill a gap in the Victorian Government’s language services policy, Improving the Use of Translating and Interpreting Services: A Guide to Victorian Government Policy and Procedures (2003).

The Victorian Government’s language services policy recognises bilingual staff as part of language services but does not elaborate on how they can be used. Presently, there are no universally accepted standards, qualifications or assessment measures for bilingual staff.

Anecdotal evidence indicated that current practices involving bilingual staff varied widely and in the absence of guidelines, good practices may not be employed. CEH – HSD undertook the research with three guiding questions:

1. How are bilingual staff defined?

2. What is the value of bilingual staff and what roles do they perform?

3. What issues should be considered in employment and retention of bilingual staff?

To develop the guidelines CEH – HSD conducted a literature review and then employed a staged consultative approach including the release of a discussion paper Defining a Bilingual Worker, a public forum and a series of round table discussions, that invited participation from government, ethnic communities, the language services sector and service providers.

The following report presents the key findings, recommendations and guidelines for recruiting, employing and working with bilingual staff.