Senior Experten Service (SES) to run Team works! young expert exchange programme on behalf of African-German Youth Office (AGYO)
Bonn-based Senior Experten Service (SES) will play a key role as a partner in the newly established African-German Youth Office (AGYO). The SES will be running Team works!, one of the two programmes to be offered by the Youth Office, which was announced today in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Berlin. The move means a stepping up of the SES’ activities in the field of African-German expert exchange.
“Taking expertise out into the world is what we do. And Africa is always part of our focus,” said SES Executive Director, Dr Michael Blank. “Team works! is an extremely beneficial addition to our portfolio and gives us an opportunity to incorporate a new emphasis. We are delighted to be involved in the AGYO.”
The new Youth Office, which was set up under the aegis of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is based on two pillars: “Team works!”, which the SES will be overseeing, and “Teams up!”, which is an exchange programme for youth groups.
Team works! is aimed at experts from Africa and Germany between the ages of 18 and 30. For young people from Africa, it offers an opportunity to spend around one month on placement in a business in Germany. Young people from Germany can go to Africa as part of an SES assignment. What is special in both cases is that the participants are supported by an SES expert as they navigate what is initially unfamiliar ground.
The first tandem teams are all packed and ready to go. A 23-year-old electrical engineer from the Ghanaian capital of Accra will soon be leaving for her placement at a photovoltaic firm in the Ruhr District whilst a budding chemical laboratory assistant from Cologne is all set for his assignment in a Kenyan laboratory. Their partners for the assignments will be experts from the same field as them – experienced professionals who have been registered with the SES for some time.
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The Senior Experten Service (Foundation of German Industry for International Cooperation) is Germany’s leading volunteering organisation for experts and managers who have either retired or are taking a career break. Its headquarters are located in Bonn and it has 17 offices across Germany and 200 representatives in 90 countries around the globe.
The Senior Experten Service (SES) currently has almost 12,000 registered experts from more than 50 sectors. Since its launch in 1983, the SES has conducted some 60,000 volunteer assignments in 160 countries, of which around one third were in Germany.
The SES is supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI), the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), the German Association of Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) and the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH). It receives funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development] (BMZ) for its activities abroad and from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for its work with trainees in Germany. For more information, visit: