SCIC Universities

Dear colleagues, Welcome to our latest newsletter, the first one in 2021. 2020 was not an easy year for anybody. It put all of us to the test but together - students, universities, trainers and interpreters - we managed not only to continue learning, but also to innovate and find new solutions for the training of future interpreters.

On 26 January 2021, the online closing event of the International Sign mentoring scheme took place. Entitled "Accessibility through sign language interpreting", the event was recorded and if you did not have chance to follow it live or you wish to watch it again

The persisting COVID-19 pandemic has not prevented the Multilingualism and Knowledge Development unit, SCIC B1, from organizing new Training for Trainers seminars. This time, due to the current circumstances, they were held online.

In the first semester of the academic year 2020-2021, thanks to the dedication of SCIC interpreters, we were able to hold two mock conferences with interpretation into seven languages - EN, FR, DE, ES, IT, PT, NL.

Since the last newsletter, the biggest novelty on the KCI are the brand new ITSU communities. ITSU stands for Interpreter Training Support to Universities, and each of our partner universities has its own ITSU community.

A new year has begun and it is time to see what is new in the SR. Since our last newsletter edition a lot of interesting things have happened.

The Evaluation Committee for Pedagogical Assistance to the Universities approved the Pedagogical Assistance requests for a total number of 174 days during the period February-August 2021. 166 days have been allocated to universities in the EU member states and 8 days in candidate countries. 41 universities will benefit from this programme. On top of that, the Committee has accepted 35 ‘traditional’ virtual classes (involving more than one trainer). Like in the previous semester, due to the COVID-19 pandemic all training assistance will be virtual.

As you know, the on-site study visits in Brussels were cancelled for the entire 2020-2021 academic year as a consequence of the COVID-19 outbreak. They have been replaced by webinars, where we try to offer the same content that we would have been offered in a regular visit in Brussels.