European upskilling opportunities
There are many possibilities for internships within the European Union and Member States, including private companies and public organizations. In this article, you will find helpful suggestions on the routes you can take to complete your internship abroad.
On first place it is appropriate to mention the leading European program on this very issue Erasmus+, which combines all current EU schemes for education, training, youth and sport.
The most resourceful way to access the program is through the university offices, which usually inform students about open opportunities, and in fact the main people who can benefit from an Erasmus+ internship are those who are enrolled in a higher education institution.
It is also good to mention that if you are looking for vacancies, it is advisable to consult the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) platform available at ErasmusIntern.org. It provides a place where companies and organizations can post their internship offers and search for interns, and students who want to intern abroad can create profiles, search and apply for internship vacancies.
And despite the above, another good third option is to contact directly a company in which you have an interest and want to do your internship there. Many companies have internship programs that are easily adapted to the Erasmus+ internship scheme.
Regarding of the opportunities in public organizations, we would like to mention that it is possible to do an official internship in the European Commission, its agencies and other bodies.
A distinction must be made that two programs stand out here - the internships Robert Schumann of the European Parliament and Blue The program for trainees in the European Commission (the so-called "Blue Book").
The Schuman Program offers fully paid internships twice a year in one of the European Parliament's official workplaces, namely Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.
Accordingly, the Blue Book program allows trainees to work throughout the European Commission, its services and agencies, mostly in Brussels, but also in Luxembourg and elsewhere in the European Union. The nature of the work will depend on the department to which you are assigned.
In both cases, the basic requirements are shared and include being an EU citizen and having completed a higher education equivalent to a bachelor's degree or other equivalent.
For these, who wish to develop their own entrepreneurial ideas, the program "Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs" could be the perfect choice as since its inception in 2009 it has been able to create many success stories.
Therefore, this EU-funded initiative specifically provides the prerequisites for a win-win collaboration where a new and dedicated entrepreneur eager to learn and acquire knowledge is paired with an experienced entrepreneur who can benefit from fresh ideas and business insights.
If you want to know more, you can check out the project website i-Coach, however you like his facebook page. The project "i-Coach: An innovative toolkit for the implementation of internship programs" is funded by the EU Erasmus+ program and aims to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the skills and competences necessary to support the process of implementing successful internships programs, through the development of methodology and an innovative training course.
