Internship and career development

The Internship and Career Development course highlights the professional dimension of the MA in EU Interdisciplinary Studies. It prepares students’ transition to the job market, especially that related to the EU institutions.

The course develops around the following pillars:

1. Lectures and seminars on the necessary skills for finding a job and, more specifically, on the specific characteristics of the EU institutions’ job market and the challenges related to working directly or indirectly for the EU.
2. Guest lectures from professionals sharing their insights on their professional world and their job tasks, the challenges they face, but also how they obtained their position in the first place
3. The development of a job strategy portfolio, including the drafting of a sound CV and cover letter.
4. Doing an internship of at least 192 hours (ca. 5 weeks).

The main objective of the course is to help students prepare for finding a job upon graduation or soon thereafter. While the acquired skills are transferable to all kinds of jobs, the course’s focus will be on the EU institutions' job market.

The course aims to meet the following objectives:

• Prompting students to reflect on what they want to do after they graduate and what kind of professional career they wish to pursue (and where)
• Help students prepare a good CV and cover letter
• Provide insights on what it means to work for the EU institutions and on the different strategies for achieving this goal
• Getting first-hand experience of working life as a young professional in EU affairs by means of an internship.

The course draws on a combination of lectures, seminars, guest lectures and student work (including student presentations). A small number of lectures is necessary, to introduce students to the technical yet essential details of the EU institutions' job market. Following that, the seminars will give students the opportunity to present their job strategy to their peers and to practice a few European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) mock exams.

Please note that attending and participating in the lectures, seminars and guest lectures is mandatory. Unjustified absences will have an impact on the course grading (see below).

Formal requirements relating to the Internship report (length, formatting, dates of submission, etc.) will be provided to the students, together with templates to prepare the different written assignments.

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

emmanuel.sigalas@ulb.be

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Personal work
• Project
• Group work
• Written report

Personal work

Project

Group work

Written report

Students will be assessed on the basis of:

1. attending the course and actively participating in it
2. their job strategy portfolio (including the drafting of a Europass CV, a short CV, a cover letter and/or talent screening questions and an oral presentation)
3. their internship report.

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

Course attendance and participation 20%

Job portfolio and presentation 30%

Internship report 50%

Language(s) of evaluation

• english