Traineeships for translation interns at the European Commission

DG Translation offers a small number of traineeships each year. These last five months and are open to graduates looking to gain some professional translation experience within the European institutions. The linguistic and academic requirements are the same as for permanent translators. Regrettably, because of the limited number of places, we cannot take all applicants.

Tasks

Trainees are usually assigned to a translation unit made up of translators with the same mother tongue or main language. As a trainee you do the same work as staff colleagues — translating into your mother tongue^* from at least two official EU languages. Your work is revised by experienced senior staff. In some cases you may be assigned to terminology work or to one of DG Translation's administrative units.

Salary

Trainees receive a grant of € 1,071.19 per month. [Updated January 2011]

When?

Commission traineeships run for five months from 1 March and 1 October every year.

Basic requirements

You must:

hold a full university-level degree and
be able to translate into your mother tongue or main language^* from two EU official languages (one of which must be French, English or German)

You are not eligible to apply if you have already completed an EU traineeship lasting more than six weeks elsewhere.

Apply now

If you meet the requirements above, fill out the online trainee application on the Traineeships Office website. The various stages of the procedure are clearly set out there.

The deadlines for applications are:

31 August for traineeships starting in March
31 January for traineeships starting in October.

The online application form is available for filling out only:

from 1 July to 31 August (for traineeships starting on 1 March the following year)
from 2 to 31 January (for traineeships starting on 1 October of the same year).

Completing the form

when filling in the two points on the statement in support of your application, write in your target language (the language you translate into)
use the checklist at the end of the form and make sure that the required documents are attached
print, sign and include the date on the form
send proof of knowledge of the languages stated (e.g. exam records, certificates of courses followed, Erasmus exchanges).

Useful links

How to apply for a traineeship(294 Kb) — summary of the above, in all EU languages
Where to find translation traineeships — EU institutions(678 Kb) (leaflet)

^*Must be an official EU language or Croatian.