When your assignment provides an abundance of experiences
When your assignment provides an abundance of experiences
Team works! is your chance to broaden your professional and personal horizons as well as putting your expertise to good use. A unique learning opportunity that brings people together across continents.
When you find the special in the ordinary
When you find the special in the ordinary
From lunch breaks to project completions, you share your working day with your colleagues on the partner continent, gaining new perspectives in the process.
When your preparation fills you with anticipation
When your preparation fills you with anticipation
To ensure a safe and meaningful exchange, Team works! arranges a virtual introductory tandem meeting, provides global learning courses and organises your travel and accommodation.
Program line Team works!
Team works! Young Expert Exchange for Sustainable Development
Team works! brings together young experts and more experienced ones in a tandem team to help promote sustainable development. Working in cooperation with the Senior Experten Service (SES), the AGYO gives young professionals the opportunity to undertake a four-week assignment in Africa or Germany. Both the experts themselves and the enterprises they are assigned to benefit from this exchange of ideas and knowledge between two generations and two continents.
The advantages for you as a young expert
Your expertise counts - and grows
Representing your generation, you share new perspectives and ideas
You are part of an international team working for a shared cause
You take a bold step in a new direction - with support from others
You gain a better awareness of yourself, the world and your possibilities
You make a contribution to sustainable development
BECOMING PART OF TEAM WORKS!
01
FINDING OUT MORE
Think this might be for you? If you’re a young expert from Germany, you’ll find more details in the Team works! in Africa section. Young experts from African countries can find out more in the Team works! in Germany section.
02
FORMING A TANDEM TEAM
The expert exchanges with Team works! are run by our partner, the Senior Experten Service (SES). They find an experienced expert to support you before and during your assignment. This person will already be familiar with your place of assignment on the other continent.
03
MAKING PREPARATIONS
You will be given thorough preparation for your assignment – from language lessons to information about your place of assignment through to global learning. In addition, the SES will look after all the organisational aspects, helping you with your travel plans, visa application and finding accommodation.
04
CARRYING OUT YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Your assignment will last roughly four weeks, during which you’ll discover how they work in your host enterprise and be able to share your own experiences. Working as an international team, you are sure to find lots of things in common and you will have the chance to discuss different approaches and develop new ideas.
05
LIVING AND WORKING ABROAD
You’ll find out about life in your country of assignment and meet lots of new people - at work or out shopping in your neighbourhood, for example. These encounters will give you a new perspective on global issues and ideas on how to help solve them.
06
EVALUATING YOUR ASSIGNMENT
After your assignment, we will explore how it has helped you develop and what we could improve. We hope you will have had a chance to forge lots of valuable contacts and friendships, connect you with other alumni and advise you on further engagement opportunities.
24 January saw Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), headed by Federal Minister Svenja Schulze, present its new Africa Strategy. It focuses on respectful cooperation with African countries and the sustainable development of the African continent. The AGYO will contribute to this aim in the area of “Promoting civil society engagement and youth”.
Just in time for the first door of the Advent calendar on December, 1st, the German-African Youth Office (AGYO) also opened its own doors into the social media world with its new Instagram channel, africangermanexchange_dajw. The main focus of the channel is to promote opportunities for young experts to volunteer in an African country with Team works!
From 30th October to 3rd November, the African-German Youth Office held its first event in Africa - a networking workshop in Ghana’s capital city, Accra. The four-day event provided a forum for 22 participants from civil society and organisations to meet up with representatives from Engagement Global and share knowledge and ideas, network with each other and ask questions. The results will now be incorporated into an evaluation process for the AGYO’s pilot phase.
With the African-German Youth Office (AGYO) about to celebrate its first anniversary, so far it has supported 31 exchange projects with youth groups from Germany and 13 African countries as well as 13 international assignments by young people. One of those young people is Rebeca Biira, a head chef from Uganda. She’s currently on assignment at the Konditorei Wippler cake shop in Dresden, in the German state of Saxony, where she met State Minister Barbara Klepsch.
Last November, volunteer fireman Julian Schwab became the first Team works! participant from Germany to travel to Kenya on an SES assignment. He spent three weeks working alongside his tandem partner, SES expert Oliver Elsner, to deliver breathing apparatus courses to four different fire stations in Kilifi County and came to realise how valuable a change of perspective is.
You are either a trainee in the third year of apprenticeship…
… or a young professional in your first years of work.
You want to get involved in social and development activities.
You are flexible in terms of time - we have to find a suitable assignment for you first.
Your employer will have to grant you leave for the duration of your assignment.
I'D LIKE TO GET INVOLVED! I'M ...
Getting involved in Team works!
Are you between 18 and 30, nearing the end of your training or already have a few years’ work experience and would like to apply for an assignment with Team works!? Then take a look here for detailed information about what we can offer you and what to do next.
Would your business or welfare/healthcare organisation like to host a young expert or send a young expert on an assignment? We can help you during the planning and preparatory stage and during the actual assignment. Simply contact our partner, SES:
Would you like to volunteer with Team works!, use your expertise to promote international development and support young people on assignment in an African country or Germany? If so, create a profile in the SES database or contact us direct if you have any questions or suggestions.
Introducing our partner: the Senior Experten Service (SES)
The Senior Experten Service (SES) is Germany’s largest volunteering organisation for experts and managers who have either retired or are taking a career break with Weltdienst 30+. Its approximately 12,000 experts from all sectors share their knowledge on assignments in Germany and abroad. On their international assignments they mainly work with small and medium enterprises, public administration bodies, welfare or healthcare facilities and institutions of basic and vocational education. The SES implements the Team works! programme on AGYO’s behalf. The Team works! tandem assignments, in which a more experienced expert and a young expert join forces, add a new component to the SES offering – intergenerational cooperation. A boost to the AGYO - and the SES!
In 2015, the United Nations agreed on 17 global sustainable development goals, which are set out in a “global contract for the future”- Agenda 2030. The AGYO is among the organisations aiming to help ensure these goals are met. With this in mind, each Team works! project explicitly addresses at least one of the SDGs.
