The advance of globalisation presents increasing challenges for communication, on both a professional and a personal level. Translators and interpreters are trained to handle these challenges. However, their job profiles have been undergoing rapid change. Translators now face growing time pressure and workloads, increasingly challenging content and extremely high quality demands. This is particularly true for specialised communication. To stay on top of these developments, new translation technologies as well as scientifically based working methods must be developed, applied and taught to facilitate the definition and implementation of strict quality guidelines. In real practice we frequently encounter a lack of this type of awareness, which we consider to be an integral part of our profession.