Professional Training

For an overview of the training events organised by the Development Office, please consult our Project References.

The Development Office provides a wide range of professional training courses and seminars targeted at executives, lawyers and officials, which are organised either in Bruges, in Brussels or on location.

These events go beyond traditional training courses. They are designed to recreate the typical College of Europe atmosphere among participants, whereby debate and networking take up a central part of the time spent on the course. The programmes are intensive experiences offering participants the chance to share expertise and knowledge, and obtain inside views from practitioners and academics coming from the College’s network of top specialists in European Affairs.

Seminars and workshops can also be tailor-made on the basis of a specific request by a partner organisation. In the recent past our partners have included national and international administrations, private companies, and professional associations.

The content of these training programmes can range from a basic general overview of the EU and its functioning to more specific technical courses on, for example, EC competition law or trade policy, and on to more practical training modules covering issues like information retrieval, lobbying techniques and negotiation skills with and within the EU. A team of project managers at the Development Office is responsible for the organisation of training seminars. Backed up by the Academic Departments of the College and building on a visiting faculty of over 200 experts, they take care of the programming, the course materials, the accommodation arrangements and the social agenda of the participants.

All participants in the training programmes have access to the European Documentation Centre and Library, one of the world’s largest information centres on the EU, where they can consult the collections, study, have full use of the computer room, and take advantage of a wide range of electronic information resources and facilities.