Translation in foreign language education has traditionally been recognized as a supplementary tool for developing language proficiency. In departments of a second foreign language such as Spanish, rarely learned in advance before higher education, translation particularly tends to be taught as an extension of reading comprehension and writing (composition) rather than for vocational purposes. However, the demand for those capable of interpreting and translation is rising with today`s expansion of global business activities and cross-border cultural exchanges, and a growing number of translation assignments are given to those without translation experience or professional translation training in a graduate school. The interpreting and translation market for Spanish is not an exception. If Spanish translation teaching in undergraduate education is to meet the changing needs of the interpreting and translation market and provide learners with opportunities to explore translation as a vocational task, it needs to move away from language-centered approaches with the primary goal of developing foreign language proficiency, and instead take into consideration the essential function of translation - communication. In this regard, this study proposes a design of translation teaching oriented to vocational purposes, based on the functionalist theory of translation and text typology.