News

SCIT Diploma Awarding Ceremony

On 2 July the Diploma Awarding Ceremony to the SCIT graduates took place at the Heraldic Hall, HerzenUniversity. The University congratulated the graduates of three training programs on their successful completion of the courses: SCIT interpreting and translation program (with English, French, Spanish, German, and Chinese languages), the interpreting and translation program for perspective language specialists from the MFA of Kazakhstan, and Conference Management training program. In the morning there took place a meeting dedicated to the results of the SCIT sixth year of work, and the School’s achievements were appreciated by Marco Benedetti, Director General of the DG SCIC, European Commission, Yuri Shishaev, Deputy Director of the UN Information Center in Moscow, Claude Durand, Head of Interinstitutional Relations and International Cooperation Unit, DG SCIC, European Commission, Josep Bonet Heras, Head of Professional and Organisational Development Unit, DG Translation, European Commission, and others. In her speech Irina Alexeeva, SCIT Director, outlined the challenges for the coming academic year. Alongside the traditional task of keeping up the standards of training, Director Alexeeva mentioned organizing the UN-MoU Universities Conference to be held in April 2015 as a priority for SCIT and HerzenUniversity. The ceremony itself took place in the Heraldic Hall, and was attended by numerous guests. In his word of welcome Rector Valery Solomin underlined the importance of language specialists with the Russian language in the modern world. The audience will surely remember the speech of Teimuraz Ramishvili, Head of the Linguistic Support Department at the Russian MFA, who spoke figuratively of interpreter training as of gem cutting. Vice Rector Sergei Goncharov and SCIT Director Irina Alexeeva greeted the graduates with warm welcoming words. The festivities ended with a traditional boat trip on the Neva river for the graduates, trainers and guests of the ceremony.

Diploma Awarding Ceremony for the graduates of the Congress Management program

On July 6 the Diploma Awarding ceremony for the graduates of the Congress Management program took place in the Mariinski Hall, Herzen University. The ceremony was attended by First Vice-Rector Sergei Goncharov, the SCIT leaders and the program trainers.

The special guests of the ceremony were the members of the SCIT Board of Guardians – Mr. Vladimir Khodyrev, Advisor to Governor of St. Petersburg and President of the North-West Transport Union, and Mr. Alexander Prikhorenko, Deputy Chair of LLC “Interpredservice”. Mr. Kirill Kasyanov, the UN-Herzen coordinator also attended the ceremony. All the guests underlined the importance of the new program as a logical step in the School’s development, and expressed assurance that the Congress Management program graduates will put to good use the knowledge and skills got during the training program. Mr. Kasyanov informed the graduates that the UN Secretariat looks into the possibility to provide internships for them in the UN Secretariat. Mr. Vyachelav Zarenkov, the member of the SCIT Board of Guardians and Chair of “Etalon Group”, presented the graduates with his book Project Management which brought him the British  Queen Victoria Award.

UN Language Competitive Examination for Russian Language Translators/Editors

The final part of the UN Language Competitive Examination for Russian Language Translators/Editors was held in May 2014. This challenging test comprised two stages where the candidates’ performance was evaluated by a demanding board of examiners.

The written part of the examination took place in New York, Geneva and Vienna in August 2013. The two-day test was given to prospective translators and editors. The tasks included translation of a general text from English into Russian, translation of an optional economic, technical, legal or humanitarian text from English into Russian, and translation of a Spanish or French text into Russian. The tasks for editors included stylistic and grammatical editing of a Russian text and editing of a Russian translation of an English text against the original version.

The second stageinvolved a competency-based interview that took place in May 2014 in New York and Geneva. it was conducted by the heads of Russian translation services and representatives of HR departments. The interview was based on the UN system of the office of Human Resources Management. The competency-based interview was designed to evaluate candidates’ knowledge and experience against the competencies required for the vacancies. In addition, the candidates had to do sight translation.

We are happy to announce that nine SCIT graduates have passed this challenging test. They are Natalia Akulenko, Karina Laktionova, Maria Lyakhovskaya, Olga Novikova, Dmitri Osadchuk, Svetlana Sidorova, Inga Khramkova, Igor Shapovalov, Evgenia Shvedchikova.

Our heartiest congratulations!

Master classes by Mikhail Smirnov, UNON interpreter

From 17 March to 5 April the school is hosting Mikhail Smirnov, an interpreter at the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON). This means an increased workload for the students, who currently have daily workshops run by the guest in addition to their regular classes. However, far from complaining about the extra demands on their time, they have demonstrated a real enthusiasm to learn from the experienced interpreter, to the point of requesting additional classes in French and Spanish. The workshops have been a new experience for Mikhail too, who has never previously acted as a trainer. We sincerely hope that he finds interacting with our young interpreters in the making to be enjoyable. In addition to the actual training, Mikhail’s visit also has a vocational component: the school administration is planning to expand internship opportunities, and is looking into the possibility of cooperating with UNON.

Mikhail Smirnov will also act as an observer in the aptitude tests scheduled for 31 March–4 April.

25 марта: Заседание Попечительского совета Санкт-Петербургской высшей школы перевода

On 25 March 2014 г the first meeting of the SCIT Board of Guardians took place.

The Board of Guardians members are  Veniamin Yakovlev, Advisor to President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Bak, Director, State Literary Museum, Vladimir Zapevalov, Russian MFA Representative in St. Petersburg, Vyacheslav Zarenkov, Chair, Board of Directors, Etalon Group, Noël Muylle, Honorary Director General, European Commission, Honorary Vice-president of the SCIT, Alexander Prokhorenko, Member of St. Petersburg Government,   Chair of the Committee for External Affairs, Vladimir Titov, First Deputy of the Minister for External Affairs, Russian MFA,  Vladimir Khodyrev,  Advisor to the Governor of St. Petersburg, president of the Transport Union, Igor Shpiniov, Assistant to the UN Secretary General.

On the agenda today is Director Irina Alexeeva’s presentation  «St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation: achievements, challenges, perspectives» and the discussion of the strategic planning issues, such as setting the agenda for the April 2015 Conference of the Universities which signed the MoU with the UN to be held at the Herzen University.