Course Overview | Transcription Certification and Training

Successful transcriptionists need to have the following skills:

• Attentive Listening
• Fast Typing Speed - Don't worry if you don't have this down now; it's not a must-have to start. Your typing speed will increase when you start working.
• Knowledge of Punctuation
• Patience
• Responsibility
• Critical Thinking
• Comprehensive Understanding of Grammar and Spelling Intricacies

Most people think that a successful transcriptionist only needs good listening skills and fast typing skills, but transcribing is more than that. You have to be well rounded in the language enough to know the difference between phrases like "Bear Market" and "Bare Market." In addition, you must be able to recognize the difference between "here" and "hear."

Successful transcriptionists must be passionate about providing the highest level of quality and clarity to the client.

Course Requirements:

• A Reliable Computer or Laptop
• High-Speed Internet
• Microsoft Word 2010 or newer
• Headphones

The Course Material Has:

Course Objective

The ultimate objective of the course is to make you an excellent transcriptionist. The skill sets developed will help you get a job with the best companies or start your own business. By the end of the general transcription course, you will have acquired the following skills:

• Good understanding of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure for accurate transcription.
• The expertise to be able to differentiate between homonyms like 'bear' and 'bare.'
• How to transcribe multi-speaker files.
• How to handle unique accents.
• How to make judgment calls when recordings are not clear.
• Become an expert in Microsoft Word.
• Learn the formatting requirements of top transcription companies.
• Understand the privacy guidelines for confidentiality.

With practice, you will become a better listener and acquire self-discipline and time management skills.

Training Course Details

Our program includes nineteen general transcription lessons.

Below is the list of lessons and what you will learn:

• Transcription Tips – This lesson includes an overview of transcription, what transcription is, different types of transcription, and career opportunities within the field. In this lesson, we go over the equipment needed to do transcription work and tips that will help you transcribe. The lesson also explains the importance of accuracy, formatting, and other factors involved.
• Speech – The information contained in this lesson is an essential guide to the parts of speech and how they function within the English language. There are thousands of words that comprise the English language. These words are sorted into eight classifications: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. English grammar is a set of rules established to organize and communicate speech into sentences, phrases, and clauses.
• Punctuation – Punctuation can be challenging to keep up on because it seems like the rules change as often as fads go in and out of style. However, you will learn about the foundational rules that will make your writing more professional, readable, and transparent.
• Interruptive Dialogue – Many audio clips have multiple speakers that interrupt each other; it can be challenging to transcribe these files accurately. This lesson will provide tips and rules on transcribing interruptive dialogue.
• Sentence Structure – The English language contains many typical sentence types that state or imply something about a subject or ask a question. This lesson will help you recognize basic sentence types, which will increase your knowledge of English and help you transcribe more accurately.
• Proofreading – Proofreading is an essential skill for any qualified transcriptionist. Although many companies have QA departments, you should never turn in transcripts that are not proofread first. This lesson will teach you how to make the process of proofreading easy and efficient.
• Keyboard Skills – Typing, contrary to popular belief, is not all about speed! To become a great typist, you need to be familiar with all sides of your keyboard, top, right, left, and bottom. You are gaining this familiarity with the tools your keyboard offers will increase your typing speed and allow you to access your programs and documents faster.
• Regional Accents – This lesson will give you tips on transcribing heavily accented speakers, so your transcripts can have the highest accuracy possible.
• Microsoft Word – The MS Word lesson is a very detailed tutorial on the program. This lesson will make you familiar with the tools of the newer version of Microsoft Word. Most, if not all, transcription companies require you to transcribe your documents in Microsoft Word, so it is imperative to complete this lesson and start working with MS Word-like an expert!
• Time Management – A crucial part of being a great transcriptionist is the ability to meet strict deadlines. You may end up working for several transcription companies as an independent contractor and find yourself juggling several projects along with your household commitments. Working from home makes it even harder to keep deadlines. This lesson gives many tips to help you organize and maximize your income when working for transcription companies on several projects.
• Privacy – Privacy consists of rules that most transcription companies must follow about confidentiality and privacy of the person and company whose recording is transcribed.
• Getting a Job in Transcription – This lesson will help you prepare for getting a job as a transcriptionist. This includes tips on what will be required of you when you apply to work with different companies. This lesson will guide you on expectations after receiving a contract from the client and how to best complete this process.
• Verbatim vs. Non-Verbatim – This lesson will teach you the difference between verbatim and non-verbatim transcription and explain circumstances requiring verbatim transcription. It will give you tips that will help when transcribing verbatim and non-verbatim and guide you on what to include in both transcript types.
• How to Be a Professional IC – In this lesson, you'll get valuable information on being a professional Independent Contractor. This lesson will give you tips on scheduling time & tracking assignments as an IC. It will help you enhance your communication skills and will guide you on how to be available and open to different assignments.
• How to Make the Most Money – The information contained in this lesson explains how to make the most money as a transcriptionist, what jobs to take, and how to become faster at doing your work. It will go over what to anticipate with hourly rates, IC taxes and includes a tracking income spreadsheet in the resources section.

Internship Program

To gain hands-on experience and put your newly acquired skill sets to the test, we recommend that you sign up for the internship program (Only for US residents).

Here is how the process works:

• You will opt-in for the internship after passing the course with a qualifying final course score.
• You will sign up as an independent contractor with the transcription company providing you with an internship.
• The transcription company will then send you the paperwork needed to become an independent contractor.
• You will commit to transcribing up to five hours of recording at no cost to the transcription company.
• You will only accept projects where you can meet accuracy requirements by the deadline
• You will transcribe the recording on time and send the transcripts to the company.

Note: Like most internship programs, the transcription company does not guarantee any work after the internship is completed. However, your chance of getting regular work is high, assuming you do a good job.