At the end of July, Florence Emery and Justine Schmid will finish their traineeship at SwissCore.
After six months of working and learning within the incredible SwissCore team, it is time for us to say goodbye. As we are finishing up our last tasks, we take a look back at our achievements during our traineeship. From strengthening our expertise on the functioning of the European Union (EU) institutions to getting to know the IGLO network (Informal Group of RTD Liaison Offices), we have experienced what it means to be inside the “EU bubble”. Going to conferences and attending events on various topics allowed us to get an insight into EU research and education programmes and policies.
At the time of her entry, Florence was completing her Master’s degree in European studies at the University of Geneva. As a trainee for education, Florence deepened her knowledge of European education policy, and in particular of the Erasmus+ programme. She closely followed the development of the Council Recommendation on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability, and regularly informed the relevant Swiss actors and stakeholders (see SwissCore article). As a concrete outcome, Florence wrote a factsheet that gives an overview of the policy context, summarises the main objectives and provides a number of examples of the current state of micro-credentials in Europe and beyond. She also collaborated with the Swiss Federation for Adult Learning (SVEB) on the matter (see SVEB article). Furthermore, she created an overview of the different existing alliances under the European Universities Initiative (EUI) for SwissCore’s partner Movetia. In September, Florence will take on a new challenge and start as an academic trainee at swissuniversities in the division research & development.
At the time of her entry, Justine had completed her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a major in international politics at the University of Geneva. As a trainee for research, Justine focused primarily on the European partnerships under the EU research & innovation programme Horizon Europe. She monitored the developments of the existing European partnerships and gathered information on the partnerships under the upcoming Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-27. Justine further wrote a factsheet explaining the three different types of partnerships (co-programmed, co-funded and institutionalised) and clarified the opportunities for Swiss participation. Within her traineeship project, she helped SwissCore’s partner Euresearch with the creation of a database on the 49 existing partnerships under Horizon Europe. Moreover, she followed the legislative process of the European Chips Act and analysed the implications of the proposed amendment of the Council Regulation establishing the Joint Undertakings under Horizon Europe (Single Basic Act) for Swiss stakeholders. In September, Justine will continue improving her knowledge on European Governance in a Dual Master’s degree at University College Dublin and Utrecht University.
We would like to thank SwissCore for providing us with a valuable experience and an amazing work environment, especially, our supervisors and colleagues who always offered us support and advice throughout our traineeship. We will miss working with such a fantastic team and are looking forward to possible collaboration in the future.