Requirements for admission
How to apply?
Selection procedure
Results of your application
You can apply if you completely fulfil the following 4 requirements:
- At least hold a professional bachelor’s degree (PBA)* or an academic master’s degree, either issued in Belgium or recognised as equivalent by competent Belgian authorities.
*PBA: A professional bachelor provides a direct ticket to a specific profession. Such degrees were formerly dispensed following ‘higher education of the short type’, unlike an academic bachelor's degree (ABA), which simply provides access to an academic master's and not to a profession. The PBA programme consists of minimum 180 credits. If you are in doubt about what kind of degree you hold, please check this with your institution of learning.
- Hold Belgian nationality or be a citizen of a Member State of the European Union or the Swiss Confederation.
- Be 30 years of age maximum.
- Be able to submit an extract from one's criminal record stating behaviour in accordance with the requirements of the job and enjoyment of civil and political rights.
These requirements must be fulfilled at the latest on the last day of the Call for candidates.
In case of recruitment, you must, upon signing your contract, prove that you fulfil the 4 admission requirements. You must also undergo medical examination for medical aptitude for your country of assignment.
If you are interested by the Junior Programme, you can apply (online only) during the publication term of the Call for Candidates which is posted twice every year for approximately 10 days (see upcoming events). You may apply for several jobs.
In expectation of the next scheduled Call for candidates, you may already create a CV of your own in our career opportunity web tool.
Instructions for creating your CV account
- Please go to our career opportunity web tool. A first step is to create your CV account. Do not forget to save/keep the e-mail address and password used for accessing your account.
- Choose French or Dutch via the language choice icon at the top right hand side of the screen. The choice of language determines the language in which you will do the written and spoken selection tests.
- To complete your online CV, please note that the sections preceded by an asterisk must be filled out. You can access your CV and update it any time via your account.
- Do not forget to save the changes you make. You can also print or save a PDF copy of your digital application.
When a Call for candidates is posted, you must connect via your account to apply. You can update your CV at that time. You must copy your letter of motivation in the purpose-made box; do not attach it. You will also be asked to answer a few additional questions and to certify that you fulfil all requirements for admission to the Junior Programme. If you are selected but it appears later that you did not fulfil one or more of the requirements on the closing date of the Call for candidates, your application will be immediately annulled.
We post approximately 15 jobs twice per year. Then, in view of applying, you must follow the instructions given in our recruitment system.
Selection for each of the jobs is as follows:
Step 1: CV screening
We check whether you fulfil all requirements for admission to the Junior Programme as well as the specific requirements for the job.
Step 2: Written test
If you fulfil these requirements, you are invited to do a few psycho-technical tests online (Aptitude tests from Hudson).
Only 7 applicants (per jobs) with the best results (and at least 50% of the points) for the written test are selected for the next step.
Step 3: Oral selection
The oral selection is in Brussels at the head office of the Belgian development agency and consists of 2 eliminatory phases:
- Phase 1: You have a motivation interview of 40 minutes with a selection committee consisting of 2 persons, in which your motivation, for both the Junior Programme and the specific job is assessed.
- Phase 2: Only if you have passed the 1st phase of oral selection,
– you fill out an online personality questionnaire and participate to an Assessment Center comprising an oral exercise with other applicants as well as a competence-based interview.
- Phase 3: Only if you have passed the 2nd phase of oral selection,
– the Jury will proceed with the global analysis of your application in relation with the position and its specific features.
For each of these phases a doodle link is sent to you in advance so you can choose a rendez-vous date. You must be personally present; these tests cannot be done via Skype.
Step 4: Interview with the field project team
If you passed oral selection,
– you are invited for a Skype interview with a team member of the project for which you applied.
This interview aims to rank the last applicants competing for the job and is to confirm whether you actually are a suitable applicant for the job.
If the project picks you
You are officially assigned to the job and invited for a mandatory 2-week pre-departure briefing at the Belgian development agency in Brussels.
Applicants who are currently in the recruitment pool (former procedure)
Because of changes in the Junior Programme the selection procedure has changed too. A Call for applicants and specific job postings are not addressed to the recruitment pool exclusively anymore. As from 2018, we post all job openings via the Junior Programme website and other publication channels. If you have already passed a selection procedure in the past and are in the recruitment pool, you must apply like all other applicants.
Calendar
Mind, the timing given below is indicative and subject to change
You were notified in March that we would inform you about the adapted calendar for the new job openings for Junior Experts. Remember, we were forced – for reasons beyond our control – to postpone the publication of the job ads owing to the late publication of the new Royal Decree launching the third term (2018-2021) of the Junior Programme. The Royal Decree is scheduled for publication this summer.
Since the initial timing for our selection procedure is not realistic anymore, we will combine the 2 calls of 2018 in 1 single announcement to potential applicants (from 10 to 24 September 2018).
Instead of assigning 2x15 Junior Experts in 2018 as well as in 2019, we will now assign 20 Juniors in each of the next 3 calls, in order to reach 60 new assignments (as planned) over the 2 first years of the new Programme.
This will obviously directly impact the period of arrival of new Junior Experts in the field: Initially, this was scheduled as from October 2018, but the period of arrival will now start as from February 2019.
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Calendar
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2018
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2019
|
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Job postings
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Mid September
(10 days)
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Mid March / April
(10 days)
|
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Step 1:
CV screening
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Mid September / October
(10 days)
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Mid April
(12 days)
|
|
Step 2:
Written test (online)
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October
(4 days)
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End April / May
(3 days)
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Step 3 phase 1:
Oral selection (Motivation)
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October / November
(11 days)
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End May / Beginning June
|
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Step 3 phase 2:
Oral selection (Assessment Center)
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November
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Mid June
|
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Step 4:
Skype interview with the field project team
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November / December
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End June / Begining July
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| Briefing |
End January / February 2019
(10 days) |
Midden September
(10 days) |
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Departures
|
02 February / 20 April 2019
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03 October / 20 December
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