Trainee (Modern collaboration adoption and change management)

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU), located in Amsterdam. It is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU.

Traineeship: Modern collaboration adoption and change management

About the traineeship programme

The Agency is looking for motivated, qualified recent graduates or students on an Erasmus+ or other programme or PhD students or Master's students (who posses a previous degree), who are interested in gaining experience and contribute to the Agency’s work for every patient in Europe. The purpose of a traineeship at the Agency is to perform tasks that are predominantly in the interest of the trainee’s training and principally serve to increase the trainee’s knowledge and to gain relevant experience.

Placement description

We are looking for a trainee in the Digital Workplace Office.

Specific objectives and projects

Context

The Agency is modernising its digital workplace to improve how staff collaborate, meet and share information. Recent upgrades to meeting rooms, new tools for online collaboration and the introduction of more intuitive Microsoft 365 applications have created new opportunities to improve the user experience.

To make the most of these changes, the Agency aims to develop clearer guidance, practical learning materials and accessible “how-to” resources that help staff work effectively in hybrid and digital environments.

Project description

As a trainee, you will contribute to a project aimed at improving the day-to-day digital experience of staff by focusing on three areas:

1. Helping people use collaboration tools more confidently, especially Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and the new Outlook experience.
2. Enhancing the quality of hybrid meetings by analysing how upgraded meeting rooms are used and turning your findings into practical checklists and visual guidance.
3. Creating simple and engaging learning materials, including short tutorials, user guides and tips that help colleagues run successful hybrid meetings and make best use of the Agency’s digital tools.

This project offers a hands-on opportunity to shape how hundreds of colleagues experience digital collaboration. You will work closely with the Digital Workplace team, observe real user needs, and transform insights into high-quality and easy-to-understand content.

Tasks

During the traineeship, you will be involved in:

• Analysing how staff use digital tools, identifying common questions, obstacles and improvement opportunities.
• Running small user testing sessions in selected meeting rooms to understand how people join online meetings, share content, and interact with room equipment.
• Creating simple, attractive “quick start guides” for hybrid meetings, including checklists for organisers and attendees.
• Developing short written or visual tutorials, such as “How to run a hybrid meeting,” “How to join a meeting from a room system,” or “Tips for effective online collaboration.”
• Supporting awareness activities for Microsoft 365 features (Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive) by preparing short posts or visual tips that encourage good digital habits.
• Collecting and presenting user feedback, and turning it into concrete recommendations that help improve future digital workplace initiatives.
• Contributing to the intranet content, ensuring that guidance pages for meeting rooms and digital tools are clear, accurate and easy to navigate.

This traineeship is well suited to someone interested in technology and user experience. Deep technical expertise is not required; curiosity, creativity and an interest in helping others understand digital tools are more important. The trainee will learn how modern collaboration tools support hybrid work and how to communicate technical concepts in a clear and accessible way. The trainee will work with experienced colleagues and gradually take ownership of specific project components.

Learning outcomes

• Practical experience in improving digital collaboration: The trainee will learn how modern collaboration tools work (such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Outlook) and how these tools support communication and teamwork in a large international organisation. They will understand how people adopt new technology and what helps or prevents successful adoption.
• Skills in analysing user needs and designing improvements: Through user testing sessions in meeting rooms and observation of day to day digital workflows, the trainee will learn to identify common challenges, gather feedback in a structured way, and translate findings into practical solutions.
• Experience in creating user friendly digital materials: The trainee will learn how to develop simple, engaging tutorials, checklists and short guides that help non technical colleagues feel more confident when using digital tools. This includes writing clear instructions, creating visuals and preparing short training resources.
• Understanding of hybrid meeting technology and good practices: By testing upgraded meeting rooms and supporting improvements to the hybrid meeting experience, the trainee will gain insight into room systems, audio visual equipment, and the key elements that make hybrid meetings inclusive and effective.
• Communication and stakeholder engagement skills: The trainee will interact with colleagues across different departments, gather input, explain proposed improvements and help promote good digital habits. This will help them build strong communication, teamwork and presentation skills.
• Project coordination and problem solving experience: By working on defined project components—from research and testing to creating guidance materials—the trainee will develop organisational skills, learn to prioritise tasks, and experience how digital transformation initiatives are delivered in practice.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for consideration for this placement, you are required to:

1. enjoy full rights as a citizen of a European Union Member State or Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway;
2. possess a university degree in computer sciences, information technology, software engineering, management information system, or computer-oriented engineering (minimum of three years or more) that must have been obtained between 6 May 2025 and 6 May 2026 or be a university student on an Erasmus + or a similar programme or a PhD student or a Master's student with a previous fully finished degree in the areas mentioned before.
3. a thorough knowledge of English (at least level C1) and good knowledge of other official EU language (at least B2) of the Common European Framework for Languages

Additional skills

• IT literacy, particularly in MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook);
• ability to work with VTC tools (Teams, WebEx, Zoom).

The following will be considered an advantage:

• familiarity with an international environment;
• working knowledge of Microsoft Office suite, in particular Office 365, including SharePoint;
• basic IT service management knowgledge (e.g. incident, request, problem);
• good writing skills and experience in preparing various types of communications, notes, presentations and emails.

Behavioural Competencies

You will demonstrate the following behavioural competencies:

• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Working with others
• Adaptability
• Research and analytical skills
• Learning and development

Conditions of traineeship

The traineeship is offered for 10 months (1 October 2026 – 31 July 2027) and takes place at the Agency’s premises in Amsterdam with possibility for teleworking up to 40% of working time from The Netherlands and occasional teleworking from outside The Netherlands. Traineeships are offered for either full-time or part-time (80% or 50%) if combined with university studies.

The Agency pays a monthly stipend of €2,049.77 for a full-time traineeship (reduced accordingly for 80% or 50%) and a travel contribution upon joining the Agency.

Each trainee will have a mentor at the Agency who will guide the trainee through the programme.

What do we offer?

• Meaningful work contributing to protecting the health of every individual and animal in Europe within multinational, multidisciplinary team
• Development opportunities (e.g. internal mobility, mentoring, peer coaching, career reflection programme, etc.)
• Work-life balance (flexible working arrangements, teleworking, generous annual leave plus official holidays)