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 Expert Service (SES), the AGYO gives young experts the opportunity to undertake a three to six-week internship 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 Expert Service (SES). They find an experienced expert to support you before and during your internship. This person will already be familiar with your place of internship on the other continent.
03
MAKING PREPARATIONS
You will be given thorough preparation for your internship – from language lessons to information about your place of internship 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 INTERNSHIP
Your internship will last three to six 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 internship 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 INTERNSHIP
After your internship, 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.
Are you committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Has your participation in the Teams up! youth exchange project or Team works! internship inspired you and made you want to dive deeper? Then be part of the SHAPING THE FUTURE Lab, a 5-day interactive workshop which will take place in Tanzania from 29th September until 4th October 2024.
The AGYO was established in January 2021 which means that 2024 marks the start of our fourth year. As in the years before, awareness of our Teams up! and Team works! programmes increased in 2023 and we were able to help young people join forces to promote socially, economically and environmentally sustainable development.
In Germany, there is a great deal of voluntary civic action in the field of development cooperation. It is carried out by numerous individuals, each with their own story, and the transition to a world with more sustainability and more justice will only be possible with their action. Recognising this, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has launched a new strategy to attract more people to volunteering and increase support for those already engaged in voluntary work.
Germany’s development minister, Svenja Schulze, presented the core components of her ministry's (BMZ) new Feminist Development Policy Strategy at a press conference in March.
Have you been part of a Teams up! exchange or Team works! assignment? Or do you know anyone who has participated? Do you think you have great ideas? Would you like to start a project/campaign in an African-German team and contribute to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals?
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 internship for you first.
Your employer will have to grant you leave for the duration of your internship.
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 internship 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 internship? We can help you during the planning and preparatory stage and during the actual internship. Simply contact our partner, SES:
Would you like to volunteer with Team works!, use your expertise to promote international development and support young people during an internship 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.
Erica, 29 years old, is an electrical engineer. She was able to gain new professional experience in the installation and maintenance of photovoltaic systems at Sunnycontrol in Bottrop.
“I would advise young people to also try to get engaged in other extracurricular activities that will widen their horizons.”
Introducing our partner: the Senior Expert Service (SES)
The Senior Expert Service (SES) is Germany’s largest volunteering organisation for experts and executives who have either retired or are taking some time off work with Weltdienst 30+. Over 13,000 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.
