NIRAS is again looking for talented and highly motivated graduates with relevant first working experiences and the passion for pursuing an international career within development consulting for NIRAS’ Young Professional Academy (NYPA). The NYPA is a fast-track on the job training and learning programme. This is a 2 years programme in which the trainee will acquire a wide range of hands-on practical experience as well as project management and tendering skills.
Why NIRAS?
NIRAS is a consultancy company with over 1,400 permanent staff based in offices around Europe, Africa and Asia. NIRAS’ expertise range from sustainable natural resources management to engineering, infrastructure, green economy, energy, water, agriculture, forestry, governance, vocational education, land and rural development. At NIRAS International Consulting (NIC), a business unit of NIRAS, you will have the opportunity to grow professionally and contribute to making an impact in development. You will work with more than 250 in-house development professionals and reach more than 16,000 experts through our state of the art tools.
NIC prides itself as one of Europe’s leading international consulting companies and service provider with over 40 years of experience in development cooperation. Annually, we undertake over 250 assignments in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America and our operations are growing steadily. Much of our work consists of implementing large, long-term and multi-disciplinary development programmes often in challenging environments. Our clients include Danida (Denmark), the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Sida (Sweden), KfW and GIZ (Germany), SDC (Switzerland), NORAD (Norway), the European Commission, the Nordic Development Fund, the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, UN organisations and national ministries. Building on our motto – we listen, we learn, we deliver – we continuously expand our position as our clients’ trusted partner in economically, environmentally and socially sustainable development. See more here
Training Scheme Format
The Young Professional (YP) enters as a trainee and moves forward passing various stages. YPs must pass each stage to fully complete the programme. Upon completion, outstanding YPs will be offered a NIRAS permanent staff positions Project manager, Tender Manager and/or Consultant.
Location: The NIRAS YPs will be based in Belgrade for the first 18 months, complemented with short-term assignments working from NIRAS’s offices and/ or projects worldwide. The last six months, YPs will preferably be based in one of NIRAS’ other European offices (“home” office).
Training: YPs will be following training sessions related to NICs three career paths, i.e. tendering, project management and consultancy and will be integrated into a working group of his/ her respective technical area (if applicable). Trainers are NIC staff with thorough hands-on experience regarding the processes and topics presented. The training sessions are supported by extensive hands-on learning ensuring that YPs are exposed to practical work on all processes within particularly tendering and project management at either a “home” office or through international field work. Hands-on learning will be supervised by permanent NIC staff. Through the programme YPs will receive knowledge on a large variety of Clients’ procedures.
Mentoring: Each YP will be assigned to a mentor with a similar technical profile or working at the respective “home” office to ensure integration and professional development. More detailed information of NYPA is available here
What does it take to qualify? *Only shortlisted candidates meeting the below qualification criteria will be contacted*
-Citizenship of an EU member country
-Master’s degree in a discipline relevant to the competence areas and operations of NIC. Prioritized technical areas are: Agriculture, water/waste water, energy, monitoring & evaluation, fund management. Competencies in the following areas would also be an asset: Climate change and disaster risk reduction, technical and vocational education and training, employment promotion and development economics.
-One to three years of relevant experience in the context of development cooperation (e.g. as internships in consulting firms, voluntary organisations, NGOs, development agencies, foreign ministries, bilateral or multilateral organisations or other work abroad)
-Excellent spoken and written English is a requirement. Working knowledge of German, French, Spanish, Portuguese or Arabic are an advantage.
-In addition, NIRAS values highly motivated individuals with dynamic personality and a positive attitude.
How to apply?
Interested candidates should register and submit their CV and a motivational letter in English through the NIRAS webpage. The application deadline is on the 31st of January 2017. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview and will start beginning of June 2017. Note: Candidates who have met the qualifications will be invited for an interview in February. Applicants are kindly asked not to contact the NYPA or NIRAS staff for information on the status of their application.