General Information
Type of contract
Traineeship
Who can apply?
EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme
Grant
The trainee grant is €1,170 per month plus an accommodation allowance (see further information section)
Working time
Full time
Place of work
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Closing date
30.11.2020
Your team
You will be part of the Directorate General Corporate Services, which encompasses two directorates: the Directorate Administration and the Directorate Finance.
The Directorate Administration is in charge of managing the ECB’s infrastructure, facilities and security facility management services. It also provides real estate, space and construction project management services, including the coordination of the ECB’s art-related activities. The Directorate Administration coordinates all occupational safety and health activities and steers the ECB’s environmental management system.
The Directorate Finance performs financial accounting and reporting, as well as planning and controlling activities. It also provides cost accounting, procurement and supervisory fee-related services.
We are looking for trainees to join the Directorate General Corporate Services in a variety of roles. Successful candidates will be working for one of the following teams:
- Administrative Services
- Premises
- Security and Safety
- Accounting
- Budgeting and Controlling
- Central Procurement
- Facility Management Business Support
The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the population we serve. We encourage you to apply, irrespective of your gender, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability or other characteristics.
Your role
Your tasks as a trainee will be supervised and will vary according to the unit you join but will include:
- conducting research
- drawing up draft reports
- compiling statistical data
- performing operational tasks
- contributing to specific projects
Qualifications, experience and skills
Essential (for all roles):
- a bachelor’s degree or higher with a specialisation or focus in one of the following fields: accounting, finance, business or public administration, economics, law, facility management, architecture, engineering, art, risk management, mathematics, statistics, econometrics, social sciences, environmental protection and/or sustainability management, communications, information technology, or another relevant field;
- a general interest in European affairs, central banking and matters of relevance to the ECB business areas participating in the programme;
- a good knowledge of the MS Office package, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint;
- an advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
Desired:
- advanced knowledge of the MS Office package (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) or other tools for data management and analysis;
- user knowledge of other software applications such as VBA, MS Access, MS Project, Python, data visualisation tools, enterprise resource planning systems (such as SAP) and statistical software;
- experience with/knowledge of document management systems, e.g. Lotus Notes, OpenText Livelink;
- experience in data analysis and the ability to interpret data;
- knowledge of, and some practical experience in, one or more of the following fields:
- service management
- quality assurance
- (public) procurement
- process management or environmental standards
- purchasing/procurement
- occupational safety and health
- logistics
- contract management
- event planning
- knowledge of project management
- business analysis principles
- for the environmental management profile, familiarity with the requirements of relevant environmental or sustainability standards and regulations, in particular ISO 14001 and/or the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS);
- for the safety and health profile, familiarity with occupational safety and health requirements and relevant standards e.g. ISO 45001;
- for the accounting profile, knowledge of accounting concepts and principles, financial statements as well as practical experience of financial accounting operations and related controls;
- for the accounting functional support profile, knowledge of procure-to-pay processes and related functional systems support.
You are curious and eager to learn and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives. You strive to know and understand stakeholder needs.
You are motivated to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the objectives of this position.
Further information
For information about accommodation, benefits and allowances, please visit our
careers pages.
Additional team-specific information
Administrative Services Division
Infrastructure Facility Management Section
As a trainee in the Infrastructure Facility Management Section, you will gain experience in a broad field of services comprising cleaning and green care, waste management, catering, the print centre, and travel services.
You will contribute to an area which positively impacts the well-being of ECB staff and provides new and sustainable facility management solutions, such as cleaning with non-chemical detergents, environmentally friendly print services or green area services supporting biodiversity.
In particular, your tasks will include:
- assisting with public procurement procedures and supporting supplier performance management activities;
- carrying out customer dialogue and relationship management activities;
- contributing to the optimisation of services and processes;
- supporting activities for the EMAS certification process;
- collaborating closely with stakeholders from technical facility management, conference and meeting, and environmental management and logistic services.
Logistic Services Section
As a trainee in the Logistic Services Section, you will gain experience in a broad field of logistics, including meeting and conference preparations, the facilities management service desk, warehouse and inventory management, mail and parcel distribution, office furniture planning, relocation services, and locker administration. You will contribute to an area which positively impacts the well-being of ECB staff by providing a range of services aimed at creating a safe, compliant and representative working environment.
In particular, your tasks will include:
- helping to plan meetings, conferences and events for the ESCB, SSM (ECB Banking Supervision) and high-level guests;
- customer relationship management and service desk activities;
- contributing to public procurement procedures and supporting supplier performance management activities;
- coordination and support of facilities management activities;
- managing a CAFM (computer aided facility management) system;
- contributing to the definition of user requirements and performance of user acceptance testing;
- warehouse and inventory management;
- mail forwarding and distribution;
- contributing to the continuous review and improvement of existing processes.
Premises Division
As a trainee in the Premises Division, you will be part of the team responsible for construction project management (CPM), corporate real estate management (CRM), and technical facility management (TFM). Your tasks will include:
- collecting, analysing and reporting data, also for other team members;
- helping to drive changes in and enhance space management;
- helping us to improve energy reliability, maintenance planning and energy consumption;
- supporting the implementation of standardised procurement documents;
- helping to improve processes and standard operating procedures in day-to-day business;
- supporting project management activities and the execution of construction projects and activities;
- supporting market analysis of developments in the construction market, e.g. building information modelling (BIM);
- helping to improve communication between solution provider (CPM) and customers.
Security and Safety Division
As a trainee in the Security and Safety Division, you will work in one of our teams (either the Service Centre unit or the Security Risk Management and Governance unit). Your tasks will include:
- collecting, analysing and evaluating data;
- contributing to the preparation and submission of regular and ad hoc reports;
- providing administrative support for the Service Centre procedures;
- helping to optimise and implement the security risk management framework;
- helping to optimise the Division’s document management framework,
- helping to prepare the Division’s communications and awareness campaigns and report to internal stakeholders.
Accounting Division
As a trainee in the Accounting Division (either the Accounting Operations unit or Accounting Functional Support unit), your tasks will include:
- contributing to various regular, non-monetary policy-related accounting processes that include working with ECB SAP components relevant for financial accounting;
- helping to advise purchasing business areas, contractors (creditors or debtors) and other relevant stakeholders on accounting issues;
- supporting the analysis and presentation of accounting data for decision-making purposes;
- contributing to the optimisation and documentation of internal processes and procedures;
- supporting the on-boarding and training of new colleagues.
- or
- providing functional support for the ECB’s procure-to-pay processes, as well as external system support to e-Tendering bidders/suppliers;
- participating in project implementations, both system or non-system-related;
- performing user access rights maintenance for various SAP modules;
- helping to create user manuals, training materials and train end-users.
Budgeting and Controlling Division
As a trainee in the Budgeting and Controlling Division, you will work on a wide spectrum of operational and policy activities linked to the ECB’s budget and related controlling activities.
Your tasks will include:
- supporting planning and regular expenditure monitoring;
- reporting and forecasting activities;
- supporting regular and specific financial data analysis;
- financial dashboard activities and carrying out IT system-related work;
- supporting the optimisation and monitoring of adherence to organisational compliance frameworks and rules relating to budgeting and controlling;
- enhancing data and knowledge management structures and tools;
- supporting project performance control from a financial perspective.
Central Procurement Division
As a trainee in the Central Procurement Division, you will provide support to the Division in the area of data collection, maintenance, cleansing, analysis and processing. Your tasks will include:
- contributing to the preparation and submission of regular and ad hoc reports;
- helping to develop internal processes, methodologies and documentation related to the Division’s data management;
- helping to prepare communications on the Division’s activities and reporting to internal and external stakeholders;
- contributing to various steps in public procurement procedures (see examples);
- working closely with all parties involved in procurement processes, both inside and outside the Division (e.g. on sources of data external to the Division and systems used).
Facility Management Business Support Section
As a trainee in the Facility Management Business Support Section in the Directorate Administration, you will gain experience in one of three specific fields, namely procurement, or environmental management/sustainability, or health and safety.
The Section provides transversal services to the Administrative Services Division, the Premises Division and the Security and Safety Division. Depending on the field you are selected for, you will contribute directly either to the implementation of our Directorate’s procurement plan (in cooperation with colleagues from the ECB’s Central Procurement Office), or to the further maintenance of our environmental management system, or to the support of the Health and Safety Team.
Application and selection process
For further information on how to join us,
read more.
The recruitment process for this position will include a pre-recorded video interview in the pre-selection phase and – if you are invited to participate in the subsequent selection phase – an online interview via WebEx.
