The European Master in Official Statistics (EMOS) is a shared initiative by Eurostat and the European Statistical System (ESS) to connect producers of official statistics and academia at European level. EMOS aims at providing students with an advanced training in the specific themes of statistics in general and official statistics, constituting a future recruitment pool of highly educated professional statisticians for the ESS and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB).
The main objective of EMOS is to enhance the abilities of students to understand and to be able to analyse European official data at different levels: quality, production process, dissemination, and analysis in a national, European and international context.
As of January 2021, the EMOS network consists of 34 programmes in 18 countries and builds on existing and nationally accredited Master programmes which, in line with the EMOS learning outcomes, familiarise the graduates with the system of official statistics, production models, statistical methods and dissemination. EMOS labelled Master programmes also collaborate actively with the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) or other producers of official statistics for relevant master thesis topics and internships in the sphere of official statistics.
Internships in an NSI or a statistical department of other producers of official statistics are an integral part of the EMOS programme. Through a traineeship (work placement, internship, etc.), the EMOS students will be able to take their studies to the next level and practice what they have learned during the master’s programme. The traineeship can be also the basis for a Master Thesis. Traineeships are also very valuable to improve social skills in an international setting while learning how to become more independent.
Eurostat has entrusted DevStat Servicios de Consultoría Estadística (Spain) the organisation of the EMOS student exchange by facilitating the contacts between participating students, universities, and hosting institutions in order to carry out cross-border traineeships for up to 24 EMOS students. DevStat provides an online platform to securely collect all data needed to organise the exchanges, as well as administers financial support to the students for 8-week traineeships.
The EMOS Traineeship Guidelines is a tool for all the three parties involved in the EMOS’s traineeships: trainees, sending institutions (universities) and receiving institutions hosting the trainee.
This manual explains how to fill in the online forms required for the application, the description of the traineeship and other phases of the process.
The aim of the guidelines is to provide a transparent and efficient preparation and recognition of the traineeship period abroad, thus, this document:
The EMOS Traineeship Guidelines have three main parts:
Furthermore, the Guidelines include the following Annexes:
WHO | Receiving institution |
ACTION | Fill in Form A1 and Form A2 |
The most important thing when trying to match the offers for traineeships with the EMOS students seeking for traineeships is the correct identification of the priorities of the student for this exchange experience. In order to find the most suitable match between the prospect trainee and the receiving institution, the latter is encouraged to hold an interview with the prospective trainee. A common description of traineeships can be found at https://emos.devstat.com/. The ESS and ESCB institutions will provide further details to enhance the common description of traineeships. Traineeship's specifications should be made available by the receiving institution using the same site.
The receiving institution should fill out Form A1 and as many Forms A2 as traineeships offered, taking into account the considerations described below:
Please note that the travel arrangements, accommodation, health, and accident insurance as well as any taxes are to be provided for by the trainee. Please see Step 2.
Description of roles at the receiving institution
Please note that one or more roles can be played by the same person at the receiving institution. The receiving institution should appoint responsible persons with the following roles:
If they wish so, the receiving institutions may provide additional financial or in-kind support to the trainees. In this case, the corresponding form in Annex I should be completed.
WHO | Student (trainee) |
ACTION | Contact DevStat |
The EMOS Student fills an expression of interest and provides administrative data through DevStat’s dedicated platformhttps://emos.devstat.com/ after identifying a potential traineeship. Please note that only one traineeship can be taken per EMOS student. DevStat will interview the students to understand their expectations and jointly decide whether the selected traineeship will be a good match and fulfil these expectations. It should be noted that the receiving institution may decide to hold an additional interview with the prospective trainee. DevStat will support in organising such interview.
In the case of spontaneous applications (i.e., not corresponding to any public offer), the student should complete the corresponding form available at the list of traineeships found at here. It cannot be guaranteed that the application will be accepted by any receiving institution.
The trainee:
WHO | Sending institution |
ACTION | Fill in Form C |
Description of roles at the sending institution:
Please note that one or more roles can be played by the same person at the sending institution.
WHO | Sending institution |
ACTION | Fill in Form E |
The sending institution commits to recognise the learning outcomes acquired by the trainee upon satisfactory completion of the traineeship.
WHO | Sending institution | Receiving institution | Trainee |
ACTION | Sign the Traineeship Agreement |
The Traineeship Agreement is the set of all forms filled in so far (STEPS 0 to 3). All parties must complete and electronically sign the Traineeship Agreement before the start of the mobility. DevStat will organise the signing process by circulating a document to be signed electronically by the parties. Please note that DevStat should keep a copy of the signed Agreement as proof to disburse the financial support.
It is recommended to use the following template. However, if the sending institutions already have an IT system in place to produce the Traineeship Agreement or the Transcript of Records, they can continue using it, provided that all the minimum requirements listed in this document are made available.
Traineeship Agreement
By signing this document, the trainee, the sending institution and the receiving institution confirm that they approve the Traineeship Agreement and that they will comply with all the arrangements agreed by all parties. The trainee and receiving institution will communicate to the sending institution any problems or changes regarding the traineeship period.
All parties accept that the traineeship can be the basis for a Master Thesis of the student
Download form:
If they wish so, the sending institutions may provide additional financial or in-kind support to the trainees. In this case, the corresponding form in Annex I should be completed.
WHO | Receiving institution |
ACTION | Fill in Form F |
Form F should only be completed during the mobility if changes have to be introduced into the original Traineeship Agreement. In that case, Form A2 should be kept unchanged, and changes should be described in Form F. The two Forms should be kept together in all communications. When changes to the traineeship programme arise, they should be agreed as soon as possible with the sending institution. In case the change concerns an extension of the duration of the traineeship programme abroad, the request must be made by the trainee at the latest one month before the foreseen end data. Should the change imply a reduction of the time to be spent on traineeship, the student is requested to return part of the financial support in a part proportional to the unused time, calculated as follows: 2.500 € x (number of days in the destination +1)/(56 days), considering a duration of 8 weeks = 56 days.
In case of changes of the responsible person(s), the information below should be inserted by the sending institution and/or the receiving institution, where applicable.
WHO | Receiving institution | Sending institution |
ACTION | Fill in Form G |
WHO | Sending institution | Receiving institution | Trainee |
ACTION | Approve the changes to the Traineeship Agreement |
All parties must approve the changes to the Traineeship Agreement. Information can be exchanged electronically, (e.g., via email, scanned or digital signatures, etc.) without the need of a paper signature. However, if national legislations or institutional regulations require paper signatures, a signature box can be added where needed.
WHO | Receiving institution |
ACTION | Fill in Form H |
Once the traineeship is finalised, the receiving institution should send a Traineeship Certificate to the trainee and to the sending institution within two months after successful completion of the traineeship. It can be provided electronically or through any other means accessible to the trainee and the sending institution. The Traineeship Certificate will contain at least the information in Form H. The actual start and end dates of the traineeship programme should be included according to the following definitions:
WHO | Sending institution |
ACTION | Recognise the traineeship according to Form E and provide a Diploma Supplement. If applicable, provide the Transcript of Records. |
The sending institution should recognise the traineeship according to the provisions in Form E and issue a Diploma Supplement. The information contained in the traineeship certificate from the receiving institution should also be included in the Diploma Supplement produced by the sending institution. It is also recommended to record the traineeship in the trainee's Europass Mobility Document (if applicable), particularly in the case of recent graduates, and in any case when the sending institution had committed to do so before the mobility. Recording the traineeship in the Europass Mobility Document is not applicable to mobility with Partner Countries which are not part of the Europass network. (Please check if your country is eligible at https://europa.eu/europass/en/national-europass-centres).
If applicable, the sending institution should provide the Transcript of Records to the trainee or record the results in a database (or other means) accessible to the student, within two months after receiving the traineeship certificate, without further requirements than those agreed upon before the mobility. The Transcript of Records will contain at least the information that the sending institution committed to provide before the mobility in the Traineeship Agreement, i.e., the number of ECTS credits (or equivalent) awarded and the grade given (which can be expressed in the form of pass/fail).
Recognition: all the credits that the trainee has earned during the mobility and that were specified in the final version of the Traineeship Agreement (Form F) are recognised by the sending institution, according to its commitment before the mobility and without further requirements than those agreed upon before the mobility.
8-week cross border traineeships taking place in another country than the EMOS student´s place of study (more than 100km away) can be supported financially with 2500€ per trainee. Trainees will be reimbursed upon signature of the traineeship agreement. This sum is meant to contribute to costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence in the host venue. Financial support provided by Eurostat through DevStat does not prevent students from applying for and benefiting from other support mechanisms and grants, (e.g., Erasmus+ ). Travel arrangements, accommodation, health, and accident insurance as well as any taxes are to be provided for by the trainee.
Conferences, workshops, and training sessions organised in the ESS like NTTS and Quality conferences provide for ample opportunities for the EMOS students to deepen their knowledge and network with professional statisticians. For the attendance of selected ESS events, in total up to 12 students can receive event sponsoring support for travel, registration fee and subsistence if the event venue is more than 100km away from the student’s place of study. The final decision regarding the eligibility of the student for sponsoring will be made by Eurostat.
Participants to selected ESS events are paid by DevStat upon proof of their attendance to the event (signed presence list, presence certificate signed by the legitimate event organiser).
DevStat will request banking information of the student to process the payment.
DevStat will make the transfers to a bank account on student’s name, and keep the proof of payments to participants, as they constitute original documents that may be subject to the checks and audits provided for in Art.II.24 of the General Conditions applicable to the contract.
Commitment to reimburse if the traineeship is shortened
Should the change in a traineeship imply a reduction of the time to be spent in the destination, the student is requested to return part of the financial support in a part proportional to the unused time, calculated as follows: 2.500 € x (number of days in the destination +1) / (56 days), considering a duration of 8 weeks = 56 days.
In order to bring additional information to students for making the decision of applying for a traineeship, receiving institutions may provide information about eventual support (financial or in-kind) that can be provided.
The following form should be completed optionally by the receiving institution:
Support provided by the receiving institution
In order to bring additional information to students for making the decision of applying for a traineeship, sending institutions may provide information about eventual support (financial or in-kind) that can be provided.
The following form should be completed by the sending institution:
Support provided by the sending institution
The situation related to the pandemic has forced many organizations worldwide to cancel or postpone major events and conferences, following the World Health Organization’s recommendations. Unfortunately, it might be possible that this situation will continue in 2021.
The best ally to prevent contagion is to reinforce personal hygiene measures in all areas of work and against any exposure scenario. The receiving institution and trainees should know the procedure and work following these recommendations:
As much as possible, institutions should consider the possibility of remote working in the case of restrictions to physical presence. All contacts with DevStat can be made online, through the dedicated platform, email and telephone if needed.
If face-to-face meetings are cancelled, the trainee should be able to maintain regular communication with the receiving institutions and sending institutions via emails, video conferences and phone calls.
In order to minimize the potential significant interferences on the traineeships caused by the pandemic, we propose to move as much as possible all training courses from classroom training courses to webinars: online training courses (applicable to those projects that foreseen face-to-face training courses or events). This solution could be applied also for those events or workshops that the EMOS student is supposed to take part and where the face-to-face interaction among participants is not mandatory. Virtual training and event platforms such as MS Teams, Zoom and equivalent software, offer the ability to download relevant content and engage in online chats to all the participants. These platforms also enable trainers or facilitators to deliver virtual experiences, including live streaming and on-demand general session keynotes and breakout presentations. In the case of training courses, all the materials, exercises and tools will be adapted or developed to guarantee the success of the webinar.
The trainee must provide proof of health and accident insurance. The insurance should cover expenses for medical treatment abroad or repatriation.
The European Statistical System Committee has awarded the following Master programmes with the EMOS label: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cros/content/emos-4-unis_en
Please note that contact persons are listed under each Traineeship offer in the website emos.devstat.com.
The following questions are intended to provide a suggestion for the contents of the evaluation report to be prepared by the trainee. The report should be sent to DevStat who will share it with all interested parties. The order of suggested issues is not mandatory.