ZOO Digital : launches Academy to inspire and educate the next generation of media localization talent

ZOO today announced its commitment to support the future of the industry's resource pool with the launch of ZOO Academy; a program of academic courses, educational collaborations and practical workshops to inspire and develop the translators, script adapters, dubbing actors and directors of the future.

ZOO Academy brings together a growing number of initiatives to proactively build long-term capacity in the localization talent pool. Academic teaching, practical training and access to the real-world platforms used to localize TV shows and movies will give talented linguists and dubbing professionals the opportunity to further develop their creative skills and gain technical proficiency. From this, they will become valuable members of the localization community who will make an immediate and lasting contribution to the industry.

The Academy is already working with leading universities and teaching professionals as ZOO Academy Partners to increase the capacity and skills of the subtitle translator, dubbing adapter and voice actor pool. By deploying the ZOOsubs and ZOOdubs platforms, free of charge, as part of audio-visual translation (AVT) courses around the world, it is helping to grow resources, particularly for those languages that currently have low supply. The Academy is bolstering dubbing capacity by identifying, training and engaging with up-and-coming dubbing actors, directors and script adapters, to grow skilled capacity in this in-demand workforce.

The mission of ZOO Academy is to nurture, train and empower the next generation of audio-visual localization talent.

ZOO Digital CEO, Stuart Green, commented: "The mission of ZOO Academy is to nurture, train and empower the next generation of audio-visual localization talent. As our industry strains under the current volumes of content production, the focus for our academy is to develop expertly trained translators, adapters, actors and directors, across all languages, who are empowered and ready to be successful contributors to the global media localization community.

"We have been working with educators and institutions around the world for some time, and the launch of ZOO Academy formalizes that ongoing commitment to support the industry's talent both now and for the future."

ZOO Academy is actively encouraging applications from universities and educational institutions to utilize ZOO localization software on their AVT courses. For more information, contact ZOO Academy