The 2022 Q4 data are in! TLDR: Interpreting courses and language industry conferences top the list. On-site events are back but online is going strong. Plus everyone loves online freebies.
Skilliga will soon be one year old. We’re delighted to hear from so many of you that it’s proving useful. As important as functionality and features are, one of the things we may have neglected was data. We didn’t start collecting data about how many people actually click on the links to event websites until late summer 2022.* But we’re counting clicks now! The idea is to better understand the CPD and training market for translators and interpreters, and to be able to support training organisers, listings editors and the language professionals’ community at large. Since you do not have to sign up to use the site, we don’t know who clicked where. But we will have an idea which listings and links get the most clicks.
Here’s what the data related to the 242 listings that were live on skilliga.com in the 4th quarter of 2022 tell us.
1. The most popular categories: interpreting courses and language industry conferences
In Q4 2022, conferences made up 28.6% of all opportunities available on Skilliga, followed by interpreting courses (23.2%) and translation courses (19.1%).
On average, though, an interpreting course listing generated 12% more clicks than a language industry conference. In fact, an average interpreting listing generated more clicks than any other category within the same period.
However, we noticed that the click distribution within the interpreting category is heavily skewed towards the top 5% of listings. It would seem that a relatively small number of courses generate the most interest. This particular piece of data probably merits a post of its own so watch this space.
2. Paid versus free: obvious winner?
Across the 242 listings analysed, 182, i.e. almost 75%, were for paid, and only 62, i.e. almost 25%, were for free training opportunities. Free attracted 40.1% clicks, while paid 59.9%. In other words, an average free event generated 0.65% (40.1% / 62) of all clicks, while a paid one 0.33%. Therefore – stay with me! – an average free event attracted ~96% more clicks than paid (0.65%/0.33%-1).
Most of the free opportunities listed are resources and events organised by universities, industry bodies or associations. There are also quite a few free live events with paid post-event on-demand access to resources.
3. On-site, hybrid, online? 40/60 split
Obviously, the COVID pandemic changed the CPD and training landscape dramatically. Online meetings replaced on-site completely to start with, but with restrictions easing, on-site gradually returned – mostly with online components. But the online format has not gone away, far from it; it seems to be thriving. The upshot is that there seems to be much more training available than there ever was pre-pandemic, as Monika and her colleagues will be able to tell you.
Currently, on-site and hybrid account for as much as 40.6% of the listings. Interestingly, the click distribution is roughly the same. Online live and online on-demand attracted 58.9%, while on-site and hybrid generated 41.1%.
So… a neat 40:60 split between face-to-face and hybrid vs. online.
4. The Oscar for “Most Clicks per Average Listing” goes to…
Online + On-Demand + Free
If we dig deeper into how format and cost combinations impact the average number of clicks, a clear winning combo emerges: online & on-demand & free. Those listings got over 200% more clicks than an average Skilliga listing. No prizes for guessing why; convenience (on demand, i.e. when I want) and affordability are obviously factors here. Note that online on-demand+paid performed much worse.
The above is just an overview of a limited data set. However, as the only site collecting so many CPD and training opportunities for translators and interpreters in one place, with search filters, we thought this summary should provide food for thought to those of you who are interested in CPD and training trends in the language industry.
* We’ve only been using standard Google Analytics, which tells us, for example, how many people visit the site or how long they stay on it; all anonymised and aggregated.
