Awareness- and aspiration-raising, interactive taster sessions, employability and careers advice, links to useful resources with informative and interactive content – these are the key areas of contribution from the Networks at forthcoming regional and local Routes into Languages events. For details check:
– Starting work as a Translator or Interpreter, 31 May 2014, University of Westminster
– Careers using Languages, 4 July 2014, York St John University
The National Networks for Interpreting and Translation (NNI & NNT) continue working together with the Regional Consortia to encourage the take-up of languages among young people and to promote careers in interpreting and translation among language learners. Read more on the highlights of the year
– A Sixth Form Careers and Languages Event organised by Anglia Ruskin University on 1 April 2014 included interactive activities by the NNT and NNI representatives. The event attracted 30 Sixth Form pupils from the region.
– Leeds Loves Languages event was organised by the Leeds branch of Yorkshire and the Humber RC on 21 March 2014. The NNI representative distributed the networks’ flyers to local students and teachers attending the event.
– Languages Expo, a collaborative careers event on 12 March 2014, sponsored by East Midlands RC, Nottingham Trent, Nottingham, Loughborough and Leicester Universities, drew some 200 undergraduate students and school pupils. This event was run to maximum effect by holding several talks at the same time in different venues and rotating the programmes all afternoon. Talks were given on translation and interpreting by the EU translation representative and the NNI Director as well as on project management, the BBC College of journalism and the Paul Smith fashion house among many other topics.
– Career prospects for language graduates – insights from the world of translation & interpreting. The University of Central Lancashire and North West RC ran a careers event on March 5 2014. This well organised event was attended by around 60 students and speakers from the Translation and Interpreting sectors, including EU translation, the International Criminal Court, EU interpreting represented by the NNI Director, and many more representatives. The talks covered many aspects of the language professions and were followed by a good Q &A session.
– Contribution to Employers Forum on 5 March 2014 at UCL School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, with about 75 undergraduate and postgraduate students attending the event. The participants were very keen to find out about job opportunities with international language services where Russian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian and Armenian languages could be used. Appropriate advice on potential employers was given.
– The University of Aston (NNT) organised a careers in translation and interpreting event for undergraduate and six-form students on 4 December 2014. This successful event was attended by around 70 students. Employers, including the Directorate General for Translation and the audiovisual sector, professional bodies such as the Charted Institute of Linguists, GCHQ, the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), and the NNI Director gave talks and answered questions on careers in language services.
– The ever popular ‘Beat the Ratrace’ Year-9 event took place on 27 November 2013 at Newcastle University. Around 150 pupils from local schools attended this day-long event organised by Routes North East. The day consisted of talks, presentations, interactive activities and discussion panels. NNI and NNT attended to help out with the event, and provide an insight into careers in language services.
– The University of Bath event ‘Using your languages’ was sponsored by the University of Bath and the Regional Consortium, South West, and was aimed at sixth form, undergraduate and postgraduate students. Members of the Networks and employers, including the Directorate General for Translation, European Commission, and the International Court of Justice, gave advice on careers in language services to an audience of 80 language-learners. Many questions were asked, and students were very keen to learn about job opportunities in international language services.
Check forthcoming events or send us questions at routes@soton.ac.uk
The 2012 season of NNI mock conferences at Leeds University is now over. Here are just a few comments from some of our attendees…!
“Thankyou for showing me the facilities available for interpreting at the university. Before viewing this conference I felt that interpreting was not something that I would wish to pursue in the future due to the need to immediately translate what is being said. However, I thoroughly enjoyed what I was able to listen to and now feel that it is something that I would wish to explore in the future. I have to say I did feel it would seem to last for a long time but the hour and a half that I did watch went really fast!”
“Thankyou for answering my questions and showing me all the facilities on offer. It has really helped me to decide what I may do in the future.”
“After the mock conference I attended last month, I would like to apply for the Masters course in interpreting and translation.”
NNI / University of Leeds mock conferences will start again at the beginning of 2013. Please get in touch with us if you’d like to come and experience simultaneous conference interpreting!
We were privileged yet again to host a delegation of conference interpreters from WTO, ICTY (UN), ILEA (Bangkok) as well as freelance interpreters working for EU institutions and other organisations. The purpose of the NNI/CTS activities was twofold. Firstly, CTS staff offered delegates English language enhancement workshops in order to improve their professional skills. In return, our visitors shared their knowledge and experience with CTS students focusing on the skills needed for work in international organisations and as freelance conference interpreters. The 2012 event was the follow up of a similar event in 2010 and 2011 and received a very positive appraisal.
One of the highlights of the week was the Outreach event on 19 April where the delegates participated in an open forum organised for undergraduate and postgraduate students of the School of Modern Languages and students from regional universities. The purpose of the event was to inform students about the diversity of the interpreting career, both in-house and freelance. About 50 students attended the forum. At the end of the event some undergraduate students commented that before the forum they had limited knowledge of a career in Conference Interpreting and how the forum helped them to get a better understanding of it.
Our ‘Careers in Interpreting and Translation’ event took place on 15 February at the University of Leeds. About 150 students, including undergraduates from regional universities, filled a lecture theatre to listen to employers and postgraduate alumni speak inspiringly about translation and interpreting from their own personal experience. Panellists ranged from staff of EU institutions, the UN and the British Refugee Council, to former students freelancing in interpreting, translation and subtitling. Attendees were able to ask questions of the speakers personally following the talks.
Straight after the event we began receiving very positive feedback from the participants, who felt the event had been a real eye-opener in terms of interesting career opportunities. They were particularly reassured to learn about the career paths of the alumni, and some have already been knocking on our doors seeking advice on professional language training. All in all, the event proved highly successful and most enjoyable for all involved.
The next NNI/NNT event will take place on 14 March at the University of Salford. See the events page or contact us for details!
Our Training teachers of interpreting workshop took place on 9 November 2011 at the University of Leeds. Offered in partnership with LLAS, the session involved MFL tutors teaching, or interested in teaching, interpreting at undergraduate level.
With the growing demand for English mother-tongue interpreters in international organisations, many MFL departments are adding interpreting modules to their curricula. This has brought us back to a question high on the agenda a few decades ago; should interpreting be taught at undergraduate or postgraduate level?
Attendees were able to learn more about the difference between interpreting training at these levels, explore the skills undergraduates will need to progress to professional training and discover the effectiveness of interpreting as a language-learning tool.
For those who couldn’t attend the conference in Southampton, some excellent speakers were present; the NNI contribution along with all sessions can now be seen on the LLAS website.
ALT-C is the largest annual e-learning event in the UK attended by the crème de la crème of instructional designers and learning technologists (more than 500 of them usually), so it really is a big deal.
You can imagine how proud the NNI project was to be present at ALT-C 2010 with three (yes, you have heard us right: THREE) different NNI instalments:
All in all, it was great fun and the NNI must have set some kind of a record: first time in with the big players and already doing lots of presenting and networking. Have a look at the resources on our website and see why we were so successful at ALT-C 2010.
The NNI recently took part in a language jobs Live Q&A (still viewable on the Guardian Careers website). Catriona MacLeod was among the panelists answering questions on language careers in the online forum on 22 July 2010.
On 18 June 2010 around 50 guests gathered at the University of Westminster’s Pavillion for the NNI’s online resources forum.
An interactive report is available to view.
