In order to address the shortage of qualified interpreters in certain language combinations, and to prepare for the upcoming retirements, the United Nations decided in 2007 to launch an Outreach Programme. One of the objectives of the Outreach Programme is to help candidates prepare for the Language Competitive Examination (LCE), and to become better acquainted with the specificity of the UN work environment. Since then, more competitive examinations have been held in order to establish a roster of successful candidates from which to cover present and future vacancies. Despite the large number of applicants, very few candidates have managed to pass, the pass rate seldom exceeding 20 per cent. One of the causes of this relatively low pass rate could be that UN speeches in general and LCE speeches in particular present specific challenges that candidates have to master in order to pass the examination, i.e., topics, speed and accents. Against this background, we decided to delve deeper into the characteristics of the LCE and to design a specific module that could be applied in the context of the Outreach Programme. The presenters will argue the relevance of being aware of the challenges of the LCE and will describe the specific module designed to help prepare candidates for passing the LCE.