A translation task must be geared toward the students’ level of competence. If the task presents too many difficulties, the learners will not be able to show what they have learned already, and the motivation is lost. Drawing on a functional approach to translation, the author argues that in translator training programmes and courses as well as individual classes should be organized according to an appropriate learning progression. The distinction between inter-subjective translation problems and individual translation difficulties can be used as a tool to grade the difficulty of translation tasks and to choose learning and teaching materials in such a way that students are guided from easy to exacting tasks without losing their motivation to prepare for the profession. A few examples from a translation course for beginners are used to show how this can be done.