Corporate Communications

A University of Bradford interpreting student is one of a select few to have passed challenging tests to join the European Commission's Insertion Scheme.

Alison Frankland, (pictured below) who completed the diploma stage of the MA in Interpreting and Translating in June, was selected to join the scheme in September after making it through the tough tests held in August.

17 English mother-tongue postgraduate students of interpreting from courses in countries as far apart as Spain and the United States were invited to the tests in Brussels but only Alison and two others were successful.

Under the scheme, Alison will be recruited for a guaranteed 100 days of interpreting at the Commission's Joint Interpreting and Conference Service (JICS), the biggest of its kind in the world, during the coming year.

She will benefit from an in-house training programme, at the end of which she will sit further professional tests to become a fully accredited interpreter for the service. Representatives from JICS and the European Parliament's Interpreting Directorate attended the June examinations on the MA in Interpreting and Translating.

Alison, who was able to study the MA thanks partly to a bursary given by Anna Radcliffe, was one of several success stories for Bradford students who have moved quickly into their chosen field following their year at the University.

Fellow graduate Kathryn Wells was recruited for freelance work by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna in September, on the basis of a successful placement during the Easter vacation. Steven Garner has taken up a post with a Nottingham translation firm, pending his move to Germany to work for the translation department at SAP, one of the world's biggest software companies.

Nigel Moore has been recruited to translate all materials for the Web site of what will be the world's biggest telescope when it enters service in Spain next year, while Finnish student Nina Kajander has also moved to Brussels to begin a period of in-service training with the European Commission's Translation Service.

• A head shot of Alison is available from the Press Office. See details below.

For further media information, please contact Rachael Ellis in Corporate Communications on (01274) 233084/0787 9437986 or Emma Scales on (01274) 233089. Alternatively, e-mail press@bradford.ac.uk or fax on (01274) 235460.

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