• Nuri Gimferrer, Translation and Interpreting and Linguistics alumna, Senior Health and Safety Adviser at Slaughter and May (London, United Kingdom)

Tourism, translation and interpreting and linguistics, and occupational health and safety. Although these three fields may seem unrelated, in Nuri Gimferrer Andrés’s case, they have a common thread and have shaped both her education and career.

After studying Tourism at the University of Girona, she earned a double degree in Translation and Interpreting and Linguistics at UPF (2007-2010), which provided her with tools and skills, such as teamwork, project management and a passion for innovation. In the last year of her programme at UPF, she chose to do an Erasmus exchange in London, at the University of Roehampton. ‘I adapted so well that I decided to stay’, she says.

In the UK capital, where she worked as a freelance translator and interpreter, she found a job at a business centre, where she got her first taste of the world of occupational health and safety, which immediately piqued her interest. ‘As I learnt more (I completed a diploma course for training), I realized it was what I wanted to do, and now I’m a health and safety officer at a law firm, Slaughter and May, where I’ve been for almost six years’, she explains. Her job is to manage the health and safety of the company’s employees.

‘Brexit will not affect me directly in terms of my job, because I have a permanent contract and permanent residence.’

Nuri says she has a stable job and is doing well. ‘My profession is valued and has the support of laws and society. In Catalonia, a lot needs to be improved in terms of labour, society and perception. I don’t know if I would have the same types of career opportunities or a fulfilling job’, she says. On the other hand, she misses her family and friends and finds the winters long, and she does not rule out going back in a few years.

With regard to Brexit, she thinks it is turning out to be a difficult process and that it is not yet clear how it will affect the country in different ways, especially economically. ‘It won’t affect me directly in terms of my job, because I have a permanent contract and permanent residence, but it will be more difficult and costly for future generations’, she says. She adds, ‘The most frustrating thing is to have lived in the UK for ten years and not be able to vote on such an important decision that could completely affect me. Also the fact that it has been used to justify voicing certain discriminatory opinions about Europeans.’

Photo gallery

Nuri Gimferrer in different London settings and when she graduated in Occupational Hazards Prevention at Nebosh (2019)