Internships at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs offers students enrolled in a French higher education institution to follow a course of study with a minimum of 200 hours of face-to-face teaching per teaching year, with a view to obtaining a state-approved diploma, the possibility of doing an internship as part of a pedagogical course, at the central administration (in Paris or Nantes) or abroad. 

In France, the trainee is hosted in one of the Ministry's directorates (see list of directorates).

Abroad, the trainee carries out his/her internship in an embassy, a consulate or a permanent representation of France to international organisations.

Requirements

These conditions must be met in order to be a candidate:

• Be affiliated to the French social security system.
• Be enrolled in a French higher education institution which has concluded a partnership with the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (this is the case of UT Capitole), to follow a course of study with a minimum of 200 hours of teaching per year, of which 50 hours are face-to-face, with a view to obtaining a diploma approved by the State.

Since some courses of study in embassies (diplomatic or consular missions) and in central government involve access to or processing of information relevant to national security and sovereignty, the EEAS reserves the right to restrict access, according to criteria adapted to each individual case.

Students who are foreign nationals are allowed to apply for all traineeship offers which do not include the mention "necessary clearance". Indeed, the procedure for obtaining a confidential defence clearance is very long for foreign nationals, often more than eight months. This is not compatible with the time required to set up a student internship.

Gratification and benefits

According to current legislation, trainees who complete an internship lasting more than 44 days, consecutive or not (i.e. 308 hours), receive a bonus equal to 15% of the social security hourly ceiling (i.e. €3.90 per hour of actual attendance). In order to comply with the law, this bonus applies irrespective of the location of the course.

In addition, for the duration of their traineeship, 50% of urban transport costs are reimbursed to trainees in Paris and Nantes, who also benefit from access to the administrative restaurant at the lowest rate.

Travel, visa and accommodation costs are the responsibility of the trainees.

Consultation of internship offers

All internship offers open to students enrolled in a French higher education institution are published on the Civil Service Portal / Place de l'apprentissage et des stages (PASS) accessible at: https://www.fonction-publique.gouv.fr/pass.

Unsolicited applications are not accepted.

How to apply?

The person in charge of internships at your school is your first point of contact.

Your institution must give its pedagogical and administrative approval to your internship project (themes, duration, location, etc.). This agreement, without which the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs cannot take your application into account, is confirmed by a computerised validation on the application form attached to each traineeship offer.

Once you have made sure that the traineeship you are planning to apply for corresponds to the educational and administrative requirements of your institution, you should send the form attached to the traineeship offer to your institution so that it can complete the section reserved for it.

You must enter an application for each traineeship offer you wish to apply for.

Each of your applications must include the form attached to each completed traineeship offer, as well as a CV and a covering letter specific to the traineeship offer you are applying for. Otherwise, your application will not be considered. Furthermore, letters of recommendation, language certificates or transcripts are not allowed and may lead to the rejection of your application.

Please note: you can have up to 5 active applications at the same time. This means that as soon as you receive a negative answer, you can re-apply. In accordance with this rule, there is no overall or annual limit on the number of applications.

So make sure that you only apply for vacancies:

• which correspond to the requirements of your course of study;
• corresponding to your profile;
• corresponding to your dates of availability;
• whose material conditions will not represent an obstacle for you.

Make sure that each of your applications is carefully written and well adapted to the particular internship offer. Applications with a generic covering letter (i.e. not specifically written in response to the traineeship offer) will not be accepted.

Students are requested not to contact directly the embassies, consulates and departments of the Ministry offering the internship offer, as this will only jeopardise your application.

More information