"The Master in European Project Planning and Management has b ..."
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Inforef
Liège (Belgium)
Role: Assistant European Project Manager
Affiliation
Inforef
Liège (Belgium)
Testimonial on the Master program
The Master in European Project Planning and Management has been an excellent opportunity to get an in-depth training on the structure and functioning of European programmes and on the different steps entailed in all European projects, from the writing of a proposal to project management activities. The fact that all trainers are professionals with years of experience is a real plus, together with the many practical activities that provided me with an insight on the work involved in the managing of a European project. I have also really appreciated the international dimension of the course, as my classmates came from different parts of the world (France, Spain, Slovenia, Portugal, Armenia, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Ghana...). Working together on the writing of a final project has been engaging and exciting also from a personal point of view. The internship offered right after the training course has been one of the main reason why I decided to apply to this master and it has been a real integration to the class-based training. At the moment, I am in Spain, working for a company offering services to the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission and promoting projects in the field of education.
Testimonial on the Internship
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.
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.
