How NAATI went from renting venues across Australia to testing 35,000 candidates in over 100 countries, and never looked back.
About NAATI
NAATI is Australia’s national standards and certifying authority for translators and interpreters, responsible for setting and maintaining high national standards for the profession. NAATI is also the only organisation authorised to issue credentials for practitioners in Australia. As demand for certified language professionals grew, NAATI’s testing model started to strain under the weight of scale and complexity.
Challenge
Their programmes were expanding quickly, rebuilding from scratch since 2018 and adding around 12 new languages each year with multiple skills to assess. But exams were still fully manual and in-person. NAATI rented venues which meant severe capacity limits and infrequent delivery. For some tests, each language/skill could only be run once every 1.5–2 years because there simply wasn’t enough venue access. Costs spiralled too — “millions of dollars a year renting out spaces.”
Candidates absorbed the friction. Because exams were restricted to Australian locations, some people travelled across states or even internationally for a single mandatory sitting. Michael Nemarich, NAATI’s COO, put it bluntly:
Michael Nemarich
We were hitting real capacity constraints… Candidates were flying to Australia to sit an exam.
Michael Nemarich, Chief Operations Officer, NAATI
Translation exams were especially fragile. USB-based workflows on candidates’ own laptops created “endless compatibility” issues and real security risks, including theft. At the same time, NAATI had to protect the legitimacy of credentials that directly affect people’s livelihoods and access to essential services. Cheating attempts existed and integrity was non-negotiable:
These are people’s lives we’re playing with…
Michael Nemarich, Chief Operations Officer, NAATI
NAATI expected moving online to take 3–5 years of gradual acceptance. Then COVID collapsed that timeline overnight.
How assessmentQ helped
NAATI acted fast. When COVID hit, they moved from in-person delivery to remote sessions within about two weeks, using that approach to keep certification running at scale. In parallel, they ran a proof-of-concept with three vendors.
assessmentQ stood out not just as a platform, but as a partner that understood the reality of language certification. NAATI needed more than “standard online exams”. They needed support for interpreting and translation performance tasks, including specialised workflows and language-specific requirements.
Together, the teams co-developed critical capabilities, adapted workflows for NAATI’s highest-volume programmes, and rolled out digital testing quickly. The experience felt intuitive for their teams and candidates:
It just works how you expect it to work, not like you have to work out how to make it work.
Michael Nemarich, Chief Operations Officer, NAATI
Within months, NAATI was live online, moving quickly toward a fully digital model while continuing to strengthen integrity safeguards.
Impact
The shift unlocked scale, access, and efficiency NAATI simply couldn’t reach with venues.
97% online delivery in 9 months & 99.2% by 2025.
Monthly Certified Interpreter tests (vs once every 1.5- 2 years per language/skill before).
Global reach enabled with more than 35,000 candidates logging in from 100 countries.
NAATI saved millions in venue hire, reinvesting those funds into staff, platforms, and new exam material.
Integrity at scale: To reduce exposure and keep pace with evolving cheating attempts, NAATI created 1,500 new materials in six months for one high-volume test type, ensuring candidates receive fresh content at each sitting.
New programmes enabled: Digital delivery opened new government and public-sector certification programmes and tenders that weren’t feasible before, expanding NAATI’s reach beyond its original model.
The partnership continues as NAATI strengthens security and scalability for the future.
And the change is irreversible in the best way:
We’ve tested over 170,000 candidates online. I’d never go back to in-person testing.
Michael Nemarich, Chief Operations Officer, NAATI
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