UWED TCI BACKGROUND
The need for interpreters in our country started looming since 1991. The more active was Uzbekistan on the international arena, the bigger the demand for interpreters was growing. This need was defined and voiced by top leaders of our country time and again. There have been many attempts made to start a training center for interpreters since 2004. But all of them to no avail. A big number of meetings, round tables and other organizational events were initiated to set this center up. Finally, on the order of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan UWED got down to taking serious actions to launch an experimental TCI which was to train its undergraduates to interpret consecutively and simultaneously for the MFA, MFERIT and other state and international institutions. Several leading interpreters from different countries contributed their efforts to train teachers of UWED trying to turn them into interpreter training instructors. Time went by, but the result at this point was still far from being satisfactory. Positive changes started to crop up in 2008 when an experienced, professional interpreter was nominated as a UWED TCI director. A group of talented young UWED teachers, under the guidance of the TCI director started working out programs and first lesson plans for the newly selected groups of undergraduate students. At the beginning stage efforts were directed at training of trainers (TOT). At that point UNDP grant helped to provide not only equipment for the selected teachers and student- interpreters, but many other things, which finally brought the work to some tangible results. The team of TCI instructors set up a Focus Group which, among other things, started monitoring the work on boosting overall train of actions at the Center. Best local freelance interpreters were invited to contribute to the work of TCI. It should certainly be mentioned that their input helped TCI very much at the first stages of its inception.
In 2009 the first small group of TCI trainees started interpreting in consecutive mode for the MFA Diplomatic Service Unit events. In the middle of 2009 three TCI students were able to interpret simultaneously. One of the biggest strides in simultaneous interpreting had been made by the TCI students in 2011 at the three day conference on Countering the Financing of Terrorism set up by the experts of S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies from Singapore.
In 2012 one of the departments of UWED became a beneficiary of the INSPIRE grant. In spite of the fact that the actual beneficiaries were not able to use its potential to the full, the British Council and London Metropolitan University did their best to make their serious contribution into the field of teaching interpretation methods at UWED TCI. Thanks to this grant UWED library received a number of books on interpreting and translation.
At present TCI UWED retrains MFA diplomat-interpreters, holds competitions among the best student-rhetoricians and conducts conferences on cross cultural communication for the University teachers from all over Uzbekistan. Starting from 2012 TCI UWED regularly hosts annual conferences on various topics, attended by the students of about 10 Tashkent Universities, demonstrating interpreting skills of its trainees. These conferences also help to share interpreting experience accumulated by the TCI with the representatives of other high educational institutions of this country.
At present TCI functions leaning on the curriculum worked out by the TCI Focus Group and regularly provides MFA and other state and international organizations with its students to perform consecutive and conference interpreting.