Training in European Affairs - Previous projects
Training sessions for the preparation of admission exams
in European institutions - 2008
The collaboration of the European Institute of Romania and the Centre of European Studies in Strasbourg began in the year 2005 and in the following years eight seminaries for the preparation of admission exams in European institutions in the French language were organized. The success of the programme was confirmed by the three sessions which took place in 2008 and for the year 2009 other two other programmes are planned.
Two of the programmes organized in 2008 were dedicated to public servants who were interested in executive positions, and in September a special session was organized for the public servants in management positions who could apply for the head of unit contests. The total number of participants in the three sessions was 86, while 25 of them took place in the special session dedicated to the preparation for the head of unit exams.
Among the participants at the two “traditional” seminaries there are representatives of central administration such as: the Ministry of Labor, Family and Equality of Opportunity, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, judicial institutions such as the Legislative Council or the Prosecutor’s office of the High Court of Justice, the Appeals’ Court in Iaşi, but also representatives of the academic world - “Lucian Blaga” University in Sibiu – Faculty of Political Science, International Relations and European Studies, the Polytechnics University in Timişoara. Among the institutions of the local administration there were representatives of: County Council of Hunedoara, County Council Prahova, County pension hall Brăila, the Institution of the Prefect for the Călăraşi County, the Institution of the Prefect for the Dolj County, School Inspectorate for Teleorman County. From the point of view of the position occupied by participants in their organizations, most of them were counselors, experts, judicial counselors, public managers.
As it relates to the special session organized for the head of unit contest the following institutions were represented: the Department of European Affairs of the Romanian Government, the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Housing, the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. Given the special character of that training session, most participants occupied positions of managers, deputy managers, head of unit or public managers.
Organized with the purpose of enhancing the chances of French-speaking Romanian candidates for open positions in European institutions, especially those for which Romanian citizenship was/is a selection criterion, the training sessions organized by the EIR in collaboration with the CEES offers participants the main instruments in order to become familiar with the different contests and know the most important phases in the European recruitment process.
The first couple of sessions for executive positions were organized at the EIR headquarters in the periods June 17th-19th and November 3rd-5th while the special session for the head of unit contest took place between September 23 rd-26th at the Residence Cerisiers Hotel in Bucharest.
The training sessions were made up by different modules during which the main sections of the exams for employment in the European institutions were presented. The modules of the training sessions were :
- contest rules and procedures
- review of notions about the European Union for the multiple questions test on the EU, its institutions and
policies
- training on the multiple questions test on the EU
- presentation of the multiple questions test on verbal and numeral reasoning
- training on the multiple questions test on verbal and numeral reasoning
- presentation of the written text
- presentation of the oral examination
During the session dedicated to the head of unit to these the following modules were added :
- public management theories
- head of unit position in the European institutions
- individual training sessions for the interviews
The main trainers for the three sessions were Julie Leprête and Eric Germain, CEES trainers with experience at European level in the preparation of exams of admission in European institutions. For the head of unit contest preparation other experts were also invited : Pierre-Emmanuel Moog, independent specialist with international experience in organizational management, as well as European Commission public servants such Christophe Bertin, Bertrand Soret şi Bertrand Delpeuch, specialists with multi-annual experience in the recruitment process of European public servants.
All training sessions were characterized by a balance between lectures and exercises. The lectures of the trainers about the essential elements of the exams and the advice offered to participants were combined with training sessions for the different tests – the multiple questions on the EU, verbal and numerical reasoning, but also the interviews.
The assessment of the training programme by the participants was conducted through the administration of an opinion poll by filling in anonymously a form containing questions in which marks were awarded pertaining to the general level of the programme, as well as that of the different modules, but also containing open questions about the most useful or redundant knowledge accumulated during the four days of training. Also there were open spaces for further comments and suggestions.
The success of the training sessions for the preparation of admission exams in European institutions is confirmed by the general evaluation of the programme as excellent by 55% of participants and very good by 45% of them. The different modules were evaluated as excellent in percentages ranging from 30-85%, very good from15-55%, and also satisfying by 5% of those who responded. These differences in perception are due to the more or less engaging character of the material presented by the trainers, as well as the different training methods used, especially those related to the involvement of participants.
Among the most useful things identified were: the conditions of access to an European public function, the rationalization of the contest idea and EU job access, how the learning process for these contest is to be approached. There were complaints related to the redundancy of certain portions of the public management session during the head of unit exam preparation and also the repetition of aspects about the status of the European public servant.
Here are some of the opinions expressed by participants:
- very good and very useful from the perspective of preparation of employment contest in European institutions
- more hours dedicated to the preparation of tests were needed
- very good organization
The training sessions for the preparation admission exams in European institutions have been organized by the European Institute of Romania at its headquarters in Bucharest, 7-9 Regina Elisabeta bldv in the conference hall, but also at the Residence Cerisiers Hotel in Bucharest.
The project coordinator was Laurenţia Mariana Mereuţă, laurentia.mereuta @ier.ro
