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Newsletter

PREPARE Scholarships - second edition!

Thursday, 05 February 2009 00:00

PREPARE is pleased to announce that another series of trainee exchanges - the PREPARE Scholarships - is possible thanks to financing from Fondation de France obtained through Forum Synergies. 

Candidates (trainees and host organisations applying separately or together) should submit their applications by March 31, 2009.

The exchange programmes can take place by the end of November 2009.

Information for candidates:

Potential trainees and potential host organisations can apply separately or together. The selection of trainees and host organisations will be done on the basis of information provided by the candidates according to the requirements specified below. The selection will be made by a Committee nominated by the PREPARE Organising Group.

 
Profile of trainees
 
Trainees should ideally:
 - be actively involved in rural development as animator, organiser, trainer or adviser to a rural community or rural development NGO;
 - have professional experience with rural development: additional experience in voluntary work would be desirable;
 - be able to communicate fluently in one of the languages indicated by the host organisation (usually English);
 - preferably have previous experience of working or studying in another culture or country;
 - demonstrate strong motivation to use in practice and share with others the knowledge and practical skills acquired during the programme period.
 
Candidates should preferably be under 35 years of age. Priority will be given to applicants from the New EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), candidate countries and new EU neighbours (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine).
 
The candidates are asked to submit:
- a letter of intent, describing their commitment and interest in participating in the PREPARE Scholarship programme;
- a short “action plan” of activities to be undertaken by the trainee following the Scholarship visit, showing how the knowledge and skills he/she obtained will benefit the trainee’s community or organisation;
- a short CV;
-  two recommendations from rural organisations which know the candidate and can confirm his/her commitment to rural development; 
-  if neither of the two recommendations comes from the PREPARE partner organisation in the candidate’s country, the opinion of the partner should also be attached.
 
The above information should be sent to the PREPARE office in electronic version to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
           
Profile of host organisations
 
The host of the trainee should be an organisation or institution involved in rural development at local, regional or national level in a PREPARE partner country (Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia or Sweden). The main requirement for such an organisation is the ability to provide the trainee with examples of good rural development practices, as well as managerial and organisational capacity needed to facilitate and monitor progress of the trainee. Organisations wishing to receive trainees should send to PREPARE an information package which should contain:
 
- short description of rural development projects and programmes implemented in the last 5 years (at least three projects should be listed, with information about their objectives, budget and number of personnel involved);
- name and function of the person (or persons) in the organisation who would facilitate and monitor the learning process of the trainee, with a written commitment (signed by the authorised representative of the organisation) that this person(s) will be available to the trainee for at least 12 hours per week during the Scholarship period;
- a short CV and description of tasks of the person(s) who will facilitate and monitor the learning process;
- languages in which this person(s) will be able to communicate with the trainee;
- if the recipient organisation is not the PREPARE partner in a given country, opinion or recommendation by the partner organisation is required.
 
The host organisation will also be asked to help the trainee in finding modest accommodation (information about such accommodation should preferably be given already in the initial information package).
 

The above information package should be sent by the interested organisation in electronic version, to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

See below for a short summary of the trainee exchanges carried out in 2008.