Traineeships For Translation Interns At The European Commission

Deadline: 31 January an 1 September each year
Open to: Holders of full university degrees or people who are able to translate into their mother tongue or main language from two EU official languages
Remuneration:  € 1,071.19 per month

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.

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 one of DG Translation’s administrative units.

Eligibility
You will need to meet a few basic requirements to take part in a recruitment competition for translators.

Formal qualifications
You must have completed a full university-level course of at least three years and obtained a degree.

Professional experience
No professional experience is required — and there are no age limits.

Language skills

You must:

  • have a perfect command of your mother tongue/main language (language 1)
  • have a thorough knowledge of English, French or German (language 2) and be able to translate out of it
  • in addition to languages 1 and 2, have a thorough knowledge of a second language (language 3) and be able to translate out of it.

All three languages must be official languages of the European Union. Specific language requirements will be indicated in the competition notice.

Check our ideal translator profile to see if you have what it takes.

General terms and conditions

You must:

  • be a citizen of one of the EU member states
  • enjoy full citizen’s rights
  • have fulfilled any obligations relating to military service in your home country
  • meet the character requirements for the duties involved.

The European institutions apply an equal opportunities policy and accept applications without distinction on grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status or family situation.

Salary

Trainees receive a grant of € 1,071.19 per month.

Application

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

The deadlines for applications are:

  • 1 September 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 1 September (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).

Further Information

The Official Webpage

22 thoughts on “Traineeships For Translation Interns At The European Commission

    1. Dear Marko,

      According to that footnote, yes, you are eligible. However, it is best to contact the DG (dgt-recruitment-and-traineeships@ec.europa.eu) and make sure you are.

      Kind Regards,
      Dijana
      Mladiinfo

    1. Dear Milica

      in this post above is clearly written:
      G
      eneral terms and conditions

      You must:

      be a citizen of one of the EU member states
      enjoy full citizen’s rights
      have fulfilled any obligations relating to military service in your home country
      meet the character requirements for the duties involved.

    1. Dear Mirjana,

      In the Eligibility section you can read all of the requirements that a candidate must fulfill. One of it is "You must have completed a full university-level course of at least three years and obtained a degree".
      So I would say that a university degree is a must.

      Kind regards
      Elena
      Mladiinfo

  1. Hi,

    I have checked the EU DG Translation website and requirements they do not mention anything about the applications citizenship.
    Where do you get your information from? Can we access it? 🙂
    Thank you !!
    http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workwithus/tr

    "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 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:

    1 September 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 1 September (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).
    How to apply for a traineeship [295 KB] — summary of the above, in all EU languages

    1. Dear José,

      You may have read the post, which you are obviously pointing out, but you failed to read the fine print at the bottom of the page. In the post it says that you will need to translate "into your mother tongue* from at least two official EU languages". Just above mother tongue you can find an asterisk, which usually means that bellow you can find some sort of an explanation. In this case it is there to point that the mother tongue "*Must be an official EU language, Icelandic or Croatian."
      That would mean that you have to be a citizen of one of the EU countries, or Island, or Croatia.

      Kind regards
      Elena
      Mladiinfo

  2. Hi, my name is Dragica, and i am from Macedonia. Is it possible for me to join the program? Just to mention i have knowledge in English, Spanish, Italian and most of the Balkan languages.
    Thakn you for your time
    Dragica Bogevska

    1. Dear Dragica,

      Sorry but Macedonia is still ineligible to join the program, no matter how many languages you know. You still need to be a citizen of the EU Member states, Croatia or Iceland in order to be considered as a candidate.

      Regards,
      Elena
      Mladiinfo

  3. my question is also reregarding Croatian applications to this traineeship;
    In application form is stated that all documents attached to app. form should be in one of the official languages of Eu. Since Croatia is the acceding country, but not comletelly fully within membership, is it neccessary to translate documents in attachment to some of the official languages of eu?

    1. Dear Danica,

      It is probably opportunity for applicants coming from states which are already members in EU. However you can ask the contact persons for specification and check once more.

      Regards,
      Mladiinfo team

      1. Ok, I'm in Slovenia at the moment, but finished my university education in Croatia, let us suppose.
        Should I translate documents from Croatian, although it will be formal eu member state next year?
        btw. your answer to me isn't at all similar to what was answered to Jose and marko, how come?
        Tx!

        1. My apologize Danica, now I see those comments. I didn't see that Croatia is eligible country to this opportunity. I would ask you to kindly review the post again, check the further information and if you have any questions and concerns to direct them to the contact persons of this opportunity who can probably be found on the official website.

          Kind regards,
          Stefan
          Mladiinfo team

  4. I am trying to fill in the online application but it doesn't work. It appears a message saying the link is incorrect. What can I do?
    Thank you! Best wishes from Romania!

    1. Dear Ancuta,

      Did you try going through the official website, the link given at the end of the post? Please do try and also you have some guideliness for applying and also if the link still does not work, that is an issue of the organizers, and you might want to contact them.

      KInd regards,
      Mladiinfo team

  5. that which we hold sacred in our heart can also be rselaeed to bless others. Like you, I’m learning I cannot be authentically me by pretending to be other than who I am a woman who sees things beyond who knows things not seen.walk in beauty.

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