Traineeship at EFTA

Traineeships are offered at the EFTA Secretariat and the Financial Mechanism Office (FMO).
The EFTA Secretariat offers traineeships of 5/ 6 months. Spring: 1 March – 31 July / Autumn: 1 September - 28 February
The FMO offers traineeships of 10 months once a year: 1 September – 30 June

Vacancy Announcements

Traineeships are advertised under Current Vacancies, in October for the spring term and in April for the autumn term. Deadlines for applications are 15 November and 15 May respectively.

Purpose of the traineeships

The aim of the traineeships is to provide junior civil servants and other qualified applicants with opportunities for training and familiarisation with the work and functions of the EFTA Secretariat and the FMO.

Field of work

The trainees will be assigned to a specific division of the EFTA Secretariat or the FMO according to academic field of specialisation, personal preferences and career objectives.

Posts are offered within the following divisions, fields of work and duty stations:

EFTA Secretariat

Secretary General’s Office – communication (Brussels) and general (Geneva)
Trade Relations Division – customs and origin (Geneva)
EEA Coordination Division – general and legal (Brussels)
Goods Division – general (Brussels)
Services, Capital, Persons and Programmes Division – general (Brussels)
Statistical Office – statistics (Luxemburg)

FMO (Brussels)

Legal
Finance
Communication
Reporting and evaluation
Sector
Country

Please consult the EFTA Secretariat and FMO websites for more information.

A short overview of the EFTA’s organisational structure and the related trainee posts can be found here.

Candidates need to specify their preferred division, field of work and duty station when applying.

Selection

The following criteria are taken into account:

University degree within law, economics, political science, international relations or other relevant and equivalent experience. Knowledge of standard office IT applications (Microsoft Office).
Current occupation, experience and career objectives.
Fluency in both written and spoken English; a good working knowledge of French is an advantage.
An analytical mind with ability to draft good quality documents in English. A flexible and motivated team player and capable of taking on a wide variety of tasks, both complex and more basic.
Geographical distribution and gender balance.

The traineeship in the Trade Relations Division (TRD) in Geneva is reserved for customs officials from the EFTA national administrations or candidates with experience and knowledge in the customs area.

The traineeship in the EFTA Statistical Office (ESO) in Luxembourg is reserved for statisticians from the EFTA national Statistical Offices.

Duty Station

Trainees are assigned to either the EFTA Secretariat Headquarters in Geneva, the Secretariat Office in Brussels or the Financial Mechanism Office in Brussels.

Employment Terms

In general traineeships at the EFTA Secretariat are open to nationals of the EFTA Member States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and have a duration of 5/6 months.

The traineeships at the FMO are also open to nationals of the EU Member States and have a duration of 10 months.

Trainees receive a flat monthly allowance (net of taxes) of CHF 2 394 if stationed in Geneva and EUR 1 428 if stationed in Brussels. Accommodation in individual flats will be provided by EFTA.

Application Procedure

For the ESO post, candidates are invited to apply via their national Statistical Offices.

For all other posts applications have to be submitted via the EFTA online recruitment tool when the vacancies are published.

The selected applicants are contacted by phone.

Please note that only applications submitted via our web tool will be considered.

For any further information, please contact EFTA Human Resources: