Mock conferences are an inseparable part of the training process at SCIT. Starting October, students take part in weekly mock conferences. As a rule, these conferences are devoted to topical issues of international affairs  and are based on actual working scenarios. All in all,  there were 33 mock conferences in 2022/23. But among these there is one conference which stands out and requires special preparation on the part of the students. This is the conference for the Russian MFA representatives. This year Herzen university welcomes Sergey Gritsay, Head of the Linguistic Support department in the Russian MFA, and Vladimir Kuznetsov, Head of the UN Information Centre in Moscow.  The purpose of their visit is to assess the students’ level of preparation and estimate the potential candidates for the jobs with the Russian MFA or the UN. The topic for the conference was chosen carefully: Russian Foreign Policy as a set of mutually reinforcing engagements. Multiple vectors of the Russian foreign policy are high on the political agenda today, and the speeches at the conference touched upon various issues of the problem.  The students worked both consecutively and simultaneously showing their skill in all their lanuage combinations. Let us hope they keep the SCIT quality standards up high and will deserve the hard earned praise from the MFA official. A job offer will be even better!

The representatives of the translation agencies AKM-Vest and Roid also attended the conference. They also evaluated the graduates’ potential from the viewpoint of empoyability. Maksim Berendyaev, Director of AKM-Vest, remarked that the standards of quality in the free market are as high as in institutional translation and interpreting, and the aspirants have to meet the expected quality standards. After the conference the businessmen  had a separate meeting with the graduates to tell about the state of affairs in the industry which is meant to help the grads find their way around once they are out of School. Let us wish them luck!