E-learning localisation earned client trust for a global public-safety technology company

The client and the project are anonymised throughout.

Sector: Public-safety technology (operational product training)

Language: English to Canadian French

Service: E-learning production and localisation

The Challenge

A global public-safety technology company received an unplanned request from a public-sector customer in Canada: its product training had to be available in Canadian French against a fixed go-live date. The programme ran to more than ten Articulate Storyline courses, around 110,000 words in total, teaching frontline users how to operate and configure field equipment and the software that supports it. Every course was originally scoped for full review by the company's own subject matter experts, the specialists who know the equipment and the procedures. That review is slow and costly, and those experts have other work to do. In operational training, one mistranslated instruction can change what a user does in the field.

The Solution

Guildhawk ran the programme as one managed workflow, designed so the client's experts could judge real output early.

• Guildhawk localised a single test course end to end, so the client could check the output, the workflow and the import into its learning platforms before committing the full slate.
• The client's own Canadian French glossary, translation memory and style guide were loaded before translation began, so approved terms stayed fixed across every course.
• Specialist Canadian French linguists carried out full human translation, raising any terminology question directly in the review files for the client's nominated subject matter expert to answer.
• Translation took place inside the native Storyline files: on-screen text, captions and interface elements were localised, the English voiceover was retained by agreement, and each course received a post-import check.
• A named customer success lead owned scoping, file preparation, phased delivery and every review cycle for the life of the programme, giving the client one accountable point of contact.

The Results

• After the first 25,000 words, the client's subject matter experts were confident enough to sign off the remaining 85,000 words without line-by-line review, keeping only spot checks of a few lessons where the terminology shifted, such as software training.
• Guildhawk estimates the saving at approximately £10,000.
• The first test files loaded into the client's learning management systems with no technical issues.
• Courses were delivered in phases as each was completed, to fit the client's roll-out to its customer.
• When the client added two further courses, roughly half of the new content matched translations already approved in memory, and the follow-on order was quoted at 25 working days.

Why this matters for training teams localising safety and policy content

Training teams that localise HSE, safety and policy content carry a cost that rarely appears in the translation budget: every module goes back to an internal expert for review, and that expert's time is scarce. Review cannot simply be removed, because the content tells people how to work safely and within the rules. It can be reduced once trust is earned on a defined first batch. Load the organisation's own terminology before work starts, route every query to one named expert, and let that expert judge real output. When the early modules pass, review can move from every line to targeted spot checks where the subject changes, such as a new procedure or a new system. Guildhawk runs this model with one accountable team, vetted linguists and ISO 27001 security, so the evidence behind each sign-off stays with the project.

About Guildhawk

Guildhawk is a British language-intelligence company founded in 2001 and headquartered in London. It combines 3,000+ vetted, certified linguists across 200+ languages with proprietary AI built in its own UK lab, delivering every project with a defensible audit trail. Guildhawk is ISO 27001 certified, a Queen's Award winner and a 2025 Safety and Security Entrepreneur Awards (SSEAs) winner, and processes work inside a secure ISO 27001 confidentiality envelope. Its GAI Translate platform provides secure, human-in-the-loop AI translation. Clients include global law firms, life-sciences, energy, financial and government organisations.

 To discuss localising safety-critical or policy training, contact Guildhawk.