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Inforef

NGO, Liège (Belgium)
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Type of internship offered: onsite and online

Partner since: 2005

INFOREF, “Initiatives pour une formation efficace” (Initiatives for efficient training), is a non-profit association of teachers and technical educational experts offering services to primary and secondary schools and also to adult education. INFOREF has a full time staff of nine people. INFOREF is also supported by several teachers, consultants and technical experts. The association disseminates relevant information on the educational innovative experiences and materials. INFOREF also offers support for the use of innovative teaching technologies and methodologies and for the introduction of e-Learning based innovative educational systems. The list of European and international projects in which INFOREF is involved can be found at the following LINK.

Testimonials on the Internship

The internship played a very relevant part of the whole Master: it was the chance to have a practical experience with ongoing projects and a very good basis where to develop new future ideas. I believe that the participation to this Master has provided with useful tools and will definitely open new doors in this field.

by Alessandra M. (Italy)

The experience at INFOREF has been really useful. The host organization was really welcoming and at the same time professional. My colleagues were all smiling, flexible, work-focused and at the same time relaxed. In particular, my tutor was really kind, patient and diligent. INFOREF is located in Liège, a francophone city of Belgium. The knowledge of the French is fundamental both to live and work there. The unique weak point was finding an accomodation there. It was both a little bit expensive (around 500-600 euros for month) and difficult to find for a short period (3 months). Despite this practical weak aspect, working in Belgium in an international environment and in two languages (both English and French) has been an important challenge for me. The activities carried out at INFOREF were really relevant and consistent with the in-class period. There, I have translated texts and documents related to European projects from English to French and vice versa, I have supported in projects’ planning and in the organization both of virtual and face-to-face meeting. I had the golden opportunity to carry out research for a report on Migration policy in Belgium and to take part in an international workshop held in Caltanissetta (Sicily), where I have presented the research. During the internship, I have also written a project under the Programme Erasmus +, where I have involved INFOREF and other 8 partners. If I should use some words to describe my overall experience at INFOREF, it was effective, challenge, useful, international and professional. I would highly recommend it and I hope to have the possibility in the future to work again with INFOREF.

by Federica D. (Italy)

INFOREF is the perfect place to have an internship. They have a long experience in the management of European projects and the atmosphere in the office is absolutely positive, I would quite say familiar. I was involved in the management of European projects since the beginning and I had the possibility to participate in several national and international meetings. My colleagues cared a lot about my personal and professional satisfaction and with them I was able to create really good personal relations. My personal suggestion is to look for an accommodation to be shared with other people: it is the best way to know new people and create a network of people to share the everyday activities with.

by Mariagiovanna R. (Italy)

I did my internship at INFOREF, an NGO specialising in European projects promoting digital education. The organisation has a long and strong expertise in European cooperation and is based in Liège, a small city in the southern francophone part of Belgium. Liège is a city that hosts a great number of universities and students from both Belgium and other European countries and different parts of the world. It is a francophone city; therefore, the internship is a very good opportunity for anybody who would also like to improve their knowledge of French. It is also very well connected to Brussels (just one hour away by train) and other Belgian cities, as well as to the Netherlands, France and Germany. INFOREF works mainly on Erasmus+ projects. Throughout the years, they have been carrying out projects dealing with a wide range of contents and activities, from the promotion of scientific education, to the provision of tools for teachers dealing with multicultural classrooms or the promotion of sport as a tool for social inclusion. As INFOREF is a small organisation, you get the chance to get involved in a varied range of activities related to different projects. In particular, I could work on a project for the development of an online platform for language learning: I was directly involved in the development of the platform (creation of content, videos, providing translations) and in the management, having the chance to participate in a transnational meeting in England with partners from 5 European countries. INFOREF was the coordinator of the project, and the meeting was also a chance to understand how decisions and roles are distributed and rediscussed among partners as the project advances, as well as how problems are addressed on a collective basis. I also worked on recruiting representatives of target groups for the testing of the platform. I was also involved in administrative tasks such as minute writing and the creation of newsletters, as well as networking tasks such as searching for possible partners for future Erasmus+ projects and getting in contact with some of them. Most of the activities I was involved in were consistent with the Master's program and, many times, complementary. INFOREF uses a wide range of project management tools that they developed and applied successfully to different projects over the years, which are good examples that I could take as a reference for future work experiences. The experience at INFOREF was interesting and consistent with my expectations. I would suggest this experience, especially to anyone who is willing to get a good understanding of Erasmus+ projects and who would like to work not only on the planning phase but also on different aspects of projects' implementation and management.

by Anna B. (Italy)

I carried out my internship in Liège, Belgium at INFOREF. To work there, you need to speak a bit of French (B1-B2) because the majority of the staff only speak that language. I worked on two Erasmus+ projects in English (one was about including visually impaired people in sport and the other one was about migrants' integration) and only one in French. Thanks to them, I could put into practice all the knowledge gained during Pixel Master's program. It was super easy to find accommodation: my tutor at INFOREF sent me links with adverts for rooms in the city. I contacted the owner, and we made the deal. The room was huge and beautiful, the rent was 350 euros/month, including all the other costs. The team at INFOREF is great, and everybody does his/her best to make you feel good. The internship was well organised: when I arrived, I signed a paper with the training objectives and the activities in which I was going to be involved. In addition to project writing, I participated in: an international meeting in Poland, a dissemination event where I had the chance to give a presentation, a conference and an InfoDay in Brussels. I think my experience at Pixel and INFOREF was great from all points of view.

by Alice C. (Italy)