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​We offer traineeships to university students and graduates in areas of study relevant to our work. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to spend five months in Luxembourg making a real contribution to our work and helping an entire continent to run better. If you are interested in what we have to offer and you meet our eligibility criteria, why not apply?

We are currently accepting applications for traineeships in all our areas of work: audit, translation, communications, general administration, IT and library management. We particularly welcome applications from candidates in the fields of IT audit and data science, as we are aiming to improve our use of technology and data in audit and are looking for trainees with the vision and ideas to make a real impact in these areas.

The ECA experience

The ECA is a great place to do a traineeship. You will have the chance to work hard on things that really matter, and you will leave with the satisfaction of knowing that your work has helped make a difference to millions of people’s lives.

You will be assigned a traineeship supervisor, who will help you integrate into a team and monitor your workload. From the very beginning, you will be supporting a team of professional auditors as they analyse the impact of EU policies and suggest improvements, or check the regularity of the transactions underlying the EU’s accounts.

Traineeship supervisor

You might even be asked to travel with your team to carry out audit work in another EU country, which will give you the chance to see first-hand how the EU’s auditors work in the field. In the non-audit departments, you will join one of our ongoing projects and work together with the project teams, under the supervision of the project manager or an experienced team member.

Work together – learn together

You will spend a lot of time with your fellow trainees. ECA trainees all start on the same day, in a cohort. Experiencing the traineeship together usually means that our trainees become a close-knit group. As well as the practical experience they gain, they also form a network of contacts which lasts long after the traineeship is over.

There are three traineeship sessions at the ECA, covering the following periods:

  • to (same calendar year);
  • to (same calendar year);
  • of one calendar year to of the following year.

Within these three sessions, individual traineeships may last between three and five months.

Your traineeship allowance

During your traineeship, you will receive an allowance of €1,500 per month. We sometimes offer unpaid traineeships, but these are the exception, not the rule.

Are you eligible?

To do a traineeship with us, you must:

  • be a national of an EU member state;
  • have completed at least four semesters of university study in a field relevant to our work;
  • have very good knowledge of one official EU language and satisfactory knowledge of a second.

Our traineeship programmes aim to allow as many people as possible to gain experience of working in EU public administration. If you have already worked for an EU institution or agency in any capacity, including as a trainee, or if you have worked as an assistant to an MEP, you can’t apply for an ECA traineeship. For more details, see the ECA rules on traineeships.

If you are selected, you will need to provide us with a certificate from your national authorities stating that you have a clean criminal record. You will also need to submit a medical certificate stating that you are fit for work. If you have a disability, please provide a letter from your doctor. The information provided in this letter will help us assess the reasonable accommodations needed to make your traineeship a positive experience.

traineeship application

Apply here

To apply, find your preferred session in the list below and click “apply” to go to the application form. You can only apply through this form – we don’t accept applications sent any other way.