Starting this month, a total of 6,000 university students and recent graduates from all over Europe, including Malta, are being offered the opportunity to apply for paid traineeships abroad to gain work experience in digital skills through traineeships with businesses and other organisations.
The duration of the traineeships may range between two and 12 months and they may take place from this month up to 2020. Students must apply before their graduation or within 12 months after graduation.
The interns receive an allowance of around €500 a month, for an average of five months.
The eSkills Malta Foundation is calling on all companies, not just ICT firms, to recognise this opportunity and make use of this Digital Opportunity Traineeship initiative to engage a foreign student to help them with any project that includes digital knowledge, skills and talent acquisition. For non-ICT companies the student could, for example, be engaged to work on a project related to social media or business/data analytics, cybersecurity or business analysis.
Digital skills are needed in all employment roles and these traineeships are not just for ICT personnel but for any student wishing to acquire digital skills.
The traineeships are aimed at strengthening their ICT-specific skills in fields such as cybersecurity, big data, quantum technology and machine learning or boost digital skills for business in areas like web design, digital marketing and software development.
The shortage of staff trained in digital technology in Europe is a worry for companies in all sectors and the lack of such skills limit the career opportunities of young people seeking to enter the job market. In fact, around 40 per cent of enterprises, many of them SMEs, report difficulties to recruit ICT specialists. As a result, there are over 350,000 unfilled vacancies in this skills area due to a mismatch between the skills job-seekers have and the skills required by employers.
Students and recent graduates should apply for these traineeships through their university, according to the timing and procedures established by the university for Erasmusplus traineeships. They may also check out the offers on Erasmus Intern and Drop’pin websites.
The Digital Opportunity Traineeships initiative is driven by companies that are members of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and businesses active in Horizon 2020, but all companies are welcome to offer digital traineeships. Companies willing to host trainees should publish their offers on the Erasmus Intern and Drop’pin websites, or advertise them by contacting the universities’ career offices.
The initiative is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme and implemented through the ErasmusPlus Programme.
For more information contact the eSkills Malta Foundation or visit the website below.