Internships and traineeships

Language internships and traineeships are among the tools designed by the United Nations Department for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM) to increase the pool of qualified candidates for recruitment into its language services, by reaching out to partner training institutions and potential applicants and offering them additional learning opportunities to complement regular academic training.

The DGACM language internships programme aims at providing a framework by which students and recent graduates in the field of language are assigned to its offices, where their educational experience can be enhanced through practical work assignments and through exposure to the work of the United Nations. The ultimate goal is to help increase the number of qualified candidates for recruitment into the UN’s language services. Interns are not remunerated. Budgetary constraints continue to limit the scope of the programme and the number of applicants who can be accepted, therefore the selection process is highly competitive and is determined by the specific needs and capabilities of the host language services.  The selected interns benefit from training and close supervisions by experienced UN language staff, and - subject to satisfactory attendance and performance - are awarded a certificate at the end of their internship period. A short survey, conducted among interns in August 2010 showed that beneficiaries were highly satisfied with their experience in the programme. You may use the links on the left to access additional information on the internships by year.

Traineeships represent another opportunity to receive hands-on training at UN offices. Trainees are generally graduates with some work experience, who are expected to produce value for the Organization, and are offered some form of compensation in return for their services, in addition to the free mentoring they receive. The Department has implemented a number of traineeship experiments, including an ongoing programme at the United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV), and several initiatives at UN Headquarters in New York. The Department is currently examining strategies for a possible expansion of the traineeship programme. Additional information will be posted on this page when available. 

Experience has shown that the language internship programme can be effective in providing in-house top-up training to selected students from partner universities. At least nine alumni of DGACM internship/traineeship initiatives have succeeded in the language competitive examinations (LCEs) in recent years, most of them in interpretation, where the shortage of qualified candidates is the most acute. (More about internships)