At the end of April, Jule Mau and Dragica Vrhovac will finish their traineeships at SwissCore.
Incredibly fast, these months at SwissCore have come to an end, so it is time to say goodbye to our trainees Jule and Dragica. During the last weeks and months, they experienced the Brussels bubble up close. By supporting our team, they did not only deepen their knowledge about the function and structure of the European Union, but they also worked together with our most valued partners in the Research, Education and Innovation Community, such as IGLO (Informal Group of RTD Liaison Offices). Both got to dive into the research funding and innovation landscape of the European Union. By attending conferences, meetings and events on the most diverse topics, they gained insights into the EU research, innovation and education programmes and policies.
Jule: “When I started my traineeship, I was finishing off my Bachelor’s degree in Economics. In my position as trainee for research, I followed the EU’s digital policies and gathered information on its ‘A Europe fit for the digital age’ ambition. To this extent, I collected data to create an overview of the digital file and followed the legislative process of the EU AI Act. In more depth, I tracked developments in the fields of hydrogen valleys and the Green Deal Industrial Plan. As part of my project, I also wrote a Success Story on the Swiss-EU collaboration in autism research and conducted interviews with several of the Swiss project partners (you can find the article here). Finally, I supported the SwissCore team by writing several Synopsis articles, attending numerous events and composing infomails that informed Swiss stakeholders about the goings-on in Brussels. I had a very enriching and interesting time at SwissCore, getting to know the EU policy on research topics and would like to thank the team for making me feel so welcome here.”
Dragica: “With a background in vocational, adult and higher education and a large backpack of experience, I arrived at SwissCore ready with knowledge in one of the three areas that SwissCore covers (Education) and was immediately able to get involved in the daily work. As an education trainee, I worked mainly on my ‘European year of Skills 2023’ project and strived to answer what future skills are needed in today’s fast-moving society, what their relevance in relation to the green and digital transition is and how this relates to skills shortages. Partners such as: Cedefop, OECD, lifelong learning, EaEa, Landesvertretung Baden-Württemberg and Euractiv supported this project and made an important contribution. In addition to this, I supported our team in their daily work, wrote several Synopsis articles such as: Covid’s impact on learning needs compensation or Multilingualism at school gains in importance, and wrote infomails on topics including: A pact for skills to boost digital skills under the topic EU Pact for Skills and informed our Swiss partners about the project. I learned a lot here at SwissCore and am very grateful for this experience.”
We would like to thank Jule and Dragica for the work, motivation and inspiration they invested into their traineeships. The support both of them gave us during the day-to-day work, events and their dedicated trainee projects was an important pillar of SwissCore’s activities for the last months. We wish them all the best and much success on their forthcoming professional journeys.