Communication United

Kommunikation og Sprog (KS) is a union of communication, language and marketing graduates and students from Denmark. Currently, it has around 7,000 members who work or study in fields like HR, marketing, management or administration. It also has a translators association.

Eighty-three percent of the union’s members are employed in the private sector (for example, in the case of translators, translation agencies) and seventeen percent work in the public sector.

KS works to ensure “reasonable pay levels and adequate working conditions” for all members of all sectors in the fields it comprises. The translation association within KS strives to make sure that all the different education programmes concerning the subject “meet the demands of the labour market”. Also, it makes sure that its members will still be in demand in the foreseen difficult market of the future.

As a member of this translators association, you have access to a wide range of benefits, including competitively priced insurance, not subject to damage excess or policy excess. Moreover, you can get specialised career counselling, legal advice on employment issues, feedback on resumes and applications and several financial benefits such as discounts on trips, in over 4,000 shops and on FitnessDK subscriptions.

KS’s job database contains over 500 jobs in all fields it stands for, including translation obviously. KOM Magazine is the union’s main publication. It features themes in the fields of communication, marketing and language services. The organisation hosts many after-work meetings and professional events that allow members to mingle and network, one of the most efficient communication tools.

KS (and its translation association) has student representatives all across Denmark’s higher education institutions. For example, “Copenhagen Business School, the Esbjerg, Slagelse and Odense branches of the University of Southern Denmark, Aalborg University, Aarhus University and Roskilde University”. The organisation, together with its student members, arranges many events and “exciting, relevant and educational” competitions.

Expanding Networks

The Danish organisation, and consequently, its translators association, invites everyone interested to expand his / her network. According to KS, “There are plenty of opportunities to share your knowledge and receive coaching in the KS network”. You’re invited to join its members or create your own network.

Several of KS’s networks have the primary goal of making arrangements. If you have an idea for an event (for example) you are more than welcome to share it with them and take active part in developing it. If you feel it needs a more specific group, you’re free to create your very own. In case you’re brave enough to stand for the event alone, KS welcomes you to do so and will even help you get the funding for it.

To create a network – or share an idea – KS advises you to get in touch with KS’s consultant, Anne-Grete Stahl.

To become a member of KS, the organisation requests that you get in touch with you local student representative (in case it applies) or alternatively contact their Copenhagen office, which has 23 employees “ready to help you”.

The Regions

KS is divided into four different regions: North Denmark, South Denmark, Central Jutland and Zealand. All regional bureaus are managed by an elected board of directors. They are responsible for representing the union in the region, as well as to ensure that there is an adequate range of activities in the area, offered by the activity groups.

These regional groups also promote networking locally. Each of these bureaus have two representatives in the league board. As he / she joins KS, every member becomes associated with a specific region.

Keep in mind that Danish, which is part of the North Germanic language family, is spoken by approximately six million people, mostly in Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and by around 25,000 Danes in Norway, where it holds minority language status.

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