Graduates: National Trainees

Traineeships are offered in fields such as space science, Earth observation, telecommunications, navigation, mission control and human spaceflight. National Trainees receive on-the-job training under the supervision and guidance of a tutor at one of the ESA Establishments. Traineeships last for one year, with the possibility of extension for a second year.

National trainee programmes have been set up for Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania and Luxembourg through bilateral agreements between ESA and the following entities:

• Belgium: Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) (more info)
• Estonia: Enterprise Estonia (more info)
• Lithuania: Innovation Agency Lithuania (more info)
• Luxembourg: Luxembourg Space Agency (more info)
• Poland: Polish Space Agency (more info)

Who can apply?

To be eligible for a National Trainee programme, you must be:

• A student in the final year of a Master’s degree or have just graduated.

• A citizen of one of the participating countries, i.e. Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg or Poland. You will need to apply to the programme run by your country.

What we offer

• A unique opportunity to gain highly valuable experience that could launch your career within Europe’s space sector or Research Institute, or ESA.
• An international, multicultural and friendly working environment
• A one year contract (with possible extension to a second year)
• A traineeship with the support from a tutor who helps you integrate into the new environment and provides guidance all through the traineeship
• The national entities cover all costs related to the traineeship and the required health insurance, and are responsible for issuing traineeship contracts.
• National Trainees have similar profiles to Young Graduate Trainees. While they are not ESA staff members, they are supervised in a similar way to YGTs, following similar tutoring guidelines.

More about life at ESA

Find out everything you need to know about life at ESA and what we offer on our pages.
For more information about ESA sites, check out ESA Establishments.

Recruitment process

The annual recruitment procedure for National Trainee programmes is run by the national agencies and ESA's Human Resources Department. The steps are as follows:

• The national agencies issue calls for applications.
• The national agencies select candidates and provisionally assign training opportunities to them.
• Human Resources sends the application of each pre-selected candidate to the hosting department or division and tutor who in turn will contact the candidate to share additional information.
• Once the list of successful candidates from each participating Member State has been agreed and finalised, the relevant national agency and Human Resources arrange a meeting with the candidates, at which their appointments are confirmed.

If you would like to apply to the YGT Programme as well

You may apply to the Young Graduate Trainee and National Trainee programmes separately. Please note that if you have already benefited from one programme, it may not be possible for you to subsequently participate in another.

Looking for more learning and hands-on opportunities?

ESA Academy is open to university students from undergraduate to PhD level coming from ESA Member States, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

ESA Academy joins forces with European universities, space institutes, and national space agencies to offer exceptional learning and hands-on opportunities, in a vast portfolio of different programmes. ESA Academy is designed to complement academic education. Its objective is to enhance students’ educational experience and help them develop both practical and theoretical know-how and expertise in various disciplines, ranging from space sciences to engineering, space medicine, spacecraft operations, project and risk management, product and quality assurance, standardisation and much more.

Learn more about ESA Academy.

Find your path at ESA

ESA offers a number of entry-level programmes targeting students (Master or PhD), recent graduates and young professionals, alongside its vacancies for experienced professionals. One of them could be your path to space! Quickly find out which programme could be the best fit for you by following the pathways at ESA on our entry-level flowchart.