Traineeships

Aim of the traineeship

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Traineeships are intended to offer the possibility to gain experience in the work of the European Union (EU) in general and the work of the Agency for Support for BEREC (BEREC Office) in particular. The Traineeship Programme creates long-term ‘goodwill ambassadors’ for European ideas and values, both within the EU and outside.

Traineeships can provide trainees with an understanding of the objectives and activities of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and the BEREC Office. The programme can enable trainees to acquire technical and operational experience through contacts made in the course of their everyday work at the BEREC Office and to further put into practice the technical knowledge they have acquired during their studies and/or professional careers.

The Traineeship Programme aims to attract highly qualified applicants who are competent and strongly motivated and to treat them professionally, so that both parties can profit by the programme.

VISIT THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - TRAINEESHIPS AT THE BEREC OFFICE

How to apply

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Applications must be made in accordance with the procedures established by the BEREC Office and described in the traineeship notices. Applications will be accepted only through using the online form available in the Apply on-line section.

Applications are accepted only in the event of open traineeship notices. If there are no open traineeship notices, the Apply on-line section will be empty and no application link will be available. If there are traineeship notices published, you will have to select a specific profile and submit your application for that profile.
 
Candidates applying for more than one traineeship must submit a separate application for each profile.

Spontaneous applications will not be retained or examined.

Candidates who are offered a traineeship will be required to provide documented evidence of the qualifications requested before the start of the traineeship. Traineeship notices will contain specific instructions to candidates concerning the application process, the supporting documents required and the procedures for their submission.

If an application is unsuccessful, the candidate may reapply for a subsequent traineeship. A new and full application will however be required.

Applicable rules

The main reference for each traineeship candidate are the Rules governing the Traineeship Programme of the BEREC Office. The rules provide useful information concerning, among other things, the selection procedure, the eligibility criteria, the organisation and the duration of the traineeships, and the rights and duties of the trainees.

Compensation and benefits

Trainees are entitled to a monthly grant amounting to 25% of the basic monthly salary of a temporary agent in grade AD5, step four. The grant is calculated at the beginning of each year and is applied to the Traineeship Programme at the starting date of the traineeship, thus excluding any later annual grant adjustment. Trainees who continue to be paid by their employer or to be in a receipt of a grant from another source or another subsistence allowance are only entitled to a financial contribution from the BEREC Office if the sum they receive is less than the amount of the traineeship grant, in which case they will receive the difference. If the trainee terminates their contract early, they will be required to reimburse part of the grant which they may have received relating to the period after the termination date. 

The grant for the year 2023 has been determined to be EUR 1 285.05.

The BEREC Office provides the trainees with private health insurance. Any other social and health contributions that are required to be paid under Latvian national law or any other law must be arranged by the trainee.

Trainees who receive a grant and whose place of recruitment at the beginning of the traineeship is more than 150 km from Riga, are entitled to receive compensation for the travel expenses incurred at the beginning and end of the training period.

Basic requirements

The image includes a visualisation of the four basic requirements on a blue background related to the BEREC Office Traineeship Programme, available in text form below the image

To be admitted to the graduate Traineeship Programme, applicants must:

  • be 18 years of age or older;
  • be nationals of an EU Member State;
  • have by the beginning of the traineeship successfully completed at least three years of a higher education course (university studies) or equivalent education in a field of interest to the BEREC Office, attested by a diploma or relevant official certificate;
  • have language skills at level C1 for the first language (thorough knowledge) and at level B2 for the second language (satisfactory knowledge), these levels being defined by the Common European Framework of Reference.

More specific details are included in the traineeship notices published on the website (please consult the Apply on-line section to view the open traineeship notices).

Privacy Statement

The Agency for Support for the Body of European Regulators (BEREC Office) processes the personal data of a natural person in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC.

This privacy notice explains BEREC Office’s policies and practices regarding its collection and use of your personal data, and sets forth your privacy rights. We recognise that information privacy is an ongoing responsibility, and we will update this notice where necessary.

1. What is the purpose and legal basis for processing your personal data?

The data provided by the candidates are collected only for the purpose of the selection and recruitment of trainees at the BEREC Office. The data will not be used for any other purposes.

The lawfulness for the processing is Article 5(a) of Regulation 2018/1725.

The legal basis for the processing is the BEREC Office Management Committee Decision No MC/2016/08 as amended by Decision MC/2018/02 on the Rules Governing the Traineeship Programme of the BEREC Office.

2. What personal data are collected and processed?

The data to be collected for the purpose mentioned above, split by the selection and recruitment phases, are the following:

2.1. At the selection phase:

The candidates are requested to submit their application though the on-line module available on the BEREC website by providing the following personal data:

  • Identification of the candidate (surname, first name, date of birth);
  • Contact data: e-mail address(es) and telephone number(s);
  • Information for assessing eligibility: nationality, knowledge of EU languages and university degree.

The candidates are requested to provide a Curriculum Vitae and a motivation letter. If the candidates do not provide these data, they will not be able to complete the application.

Optionally, the candidates may indicate any recognised disabilities, which necessitate any special arrangement in the context of the section procedure. For statistical reasons candidates will be asked to indicated their gender.

Filling in these fields is not mandatory and the candidates will be able to submit their application without filling them in.

Once the candidates have decided to submit electronically their application, changing and/or adding data before the end of the selection procedure is no longer possible.

These data will be processed by the Administration and Finance Unit and will be provided to the Members of the Selection Committee.

2.2. At the recruitment phase:

In addition to the data listed above recruited candidates will need to provide the data listed below to be used for establishing the trainee’s file and to allow for their entry into service

  • Copy of passport or ID card;
  • Proof of the applicant's university diploma;
  • Proof of language skills (if the case);
  • Legal entity file (LEF) and Financial Identification (BAF)
  • Declaration on the absence of conflict of interest according a pre-defined form.

3. Who has access to your personal data and to whom is it disclosed?

The recipients of your data are:

  • The members of the Selection Panel;
  • The Administration and Finance Unit staff;
  • The staff members involved in the BEREC Office Financial Circuit;
  • The BEREC Office contractor in charge of providing private health insurance coverage to the trainees

4. How long are your personal data kept?

Personal data of recruited trainees are filed and stored for a period of 50 years with elimination after five years of all documents except the online application forms, the traineeship agreements and the attestations of traineeships, if available. The files of candidates who are a) rejected; b) not pre-selected; c) pre-selected but not recruited; or, d)  who withdraw their application, are retained for 2 years after the starting date of the recruited trainee for the selection procedure in question.

5. What are your rights?

You have the right to request from the controller access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data or restriction of processing, under the following conditions:

Once you have decided to submit your application, you may request erasure of your data at any given time. Changing and adding data before the end of the selection phase is not possible.

After the closure of the selection procedure the candidates may request rectification of their data by sending an e-mail message to: [email protected]. Such requests will be treated not later than 14 working days following the date of their recording.

Following a request, the files of recruited candidates will be deleted 5 years after the discharge of the financial years during which they have received payment from the BEREC Office.

You also have the right to object to processing of personal data.

The controller shall provide information on action taken on a request within one month of receipt of the request. That period may be extended by two further months where necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of the requests.

6. Who is the data controller and how to exercise your rights?

The BEREC Office shall exercise the tasks of the data controller for the purpose of this processing operation.

To exercise the mentioned rights, you can contact the controller by sending an email to: [email protected].

If you consider your data protection rights have been breached, you can always lodge a complaint with the BEREC Office’s Data Protection Officer ([email protected]) or with the European Data Protection Supervisor: [email protected].

Last up-date: 05.05.2022