ELSA Traineeships
An internship in your field that accumulates international experience! The ELSA Traineeships application is held twice a year, in the fall and spring.
ELSA Traineeships is an international traineeship programme that offers law students and young lawyers an opportunity to do an internship abroad. The purpose of the traineeships is to support judicial training and understanding by offering traineeship places and receiving trainees.
During the traineeship the local ELSA group helps the trainee with all practical matters and introduce them to the local culture. This means that the trainee won’t need to worry alone about finding the apartment, applying for the possible visa or other practical issues. Some ELSA Traineeships are offered also fully digitally which entails the traineeship being conducted in distance and possibly without any need to travel to the traineeship’s destina
ELSA Traineeships is formely known as STEP (Student Trainee Exchange Programe) and for this reason you may still come across terms like STEP progamme or STEP traineeships in ELSA’s international websites.
Reasons to apply to a ELSA Traineeship
- Free: only an ELSA membership is required
- Easy: just submit an application form online, with the help of the Finnish Professional Development team
- Always get help: The Finnish Professional Development team will help you with the application, and the Professional Development team in your target country will help you with practical matters and offers social programme
- Diverse opportunities: there are dozens of countries and legal fields available in ELSA traineeship
- All in one: get relevant work experience, learn to know a new culture and new languages, and travel around the world
ELSA STEP traineeship meant for me simply my dreams becoming true - I got a trainee position in a dream team of a company I respected. This experience taught me so much about work as a legal counsel in an international tech company, threw at me unbelievable challenges and made me stronger in every possible way. Also, it gave me the chance to experience life in another amazing country and meet people who have now a special place in my heart.
Formerly ELSA Traineeships is known as STEP (Student Trainee Exchange Program)
About ELSA traineeships
ELSA traineeships range from two weeks to two years, but generally last a couple of months. There are traineeships available to all students at all stages of their studies and also to recent graduates. Most of the traineeships are paid, and the salary is often relative to the cost of living. There are plenty of traineeship opportunities across Europe and, for example, South America. There are a number of placements in various sectors of employment such as courts, international institutions, universities, and law firms. There are 200–300 internships per application period, so everyone will find a suitable traineeship to apply to.
Discovering ELSA traineeships
Traineeships application periods take place twice a year for one month at a time. Traineeships start all year round, and many law students have gained their first work experience e.g. as a summer trainee via ELSA. Traineeships are published in March–April and October–November at the application page.
Check out the traineeships available after they have been published on the application page website. Once published, you can use the search functionality to find the training places that are best for you! You can apply to up to three locations per application period.
Traineeship application process
Applying to ELSA traineeships is easy! You can apply to traineeship if you are a member of ELSA, whether you are a law student or a recent graduate. If you are not yet a member, you can join us now online!
Traineeships are published in due time at step.elsa.org
- Use the search functionality to find the traineeships that are best for you
- Choose 1 to 3 traineeships to apply to
- Make sure your CV is up to date, and write motivation letters to the traineeships
- Submit the STEP application form at step.elsa.org during the application period
- Send a transcript of studies and other certificates (if applicable) to our STEP team for verification
The Professional Development team at your local group goes through your application. You will be informed when we have forwarded your application for international processing.
Traineeship providers may hold interviews on a common schedule. However, many employers choose not to hold interviews.
The applicants will be informed of the results.
- Enjoy your traineeship!
Read the instructions for filling out the application form, and if you have any questions, please contact our Professional Development team. The application form contains a prompt to contact your local Professional Development representative (former STEP representative) before submitting the application; however, if you have discovered the instructions and read them thoroughly, it is not necessary to separately contact us before submitting your application.
For traineeship providers
ELSA’s local groups acquire ELSA Traineeships employers from their area. ELSA Traineeships benefit both the employer and the trainee; ELSA takes care of the traineeship place’s promotion, pre-selection of candiddates and all practical arrangements such as apartment searching, visa applying and even some free time programme planning. The emlpoyer defines the content and the duration of the traineeships and the skills criteria for the trainee. For example the criteria for a traineeship place can be a certain skill level of german or french and broad knowledge of business law or EU law. The trainee will gather during the traineeship international work experience and the possibility to get to know a new business culture.
The so-called Job Hunting period for ELSA Traineeships employers is twice a year – in practice the employers for autumn are searched during the beginning of the year and employers for spring and summer are searched during autumn. The employer decides the length of the traineeships according to their needs. Typically ELSA Traineeships last 2 to 4 months. The trainees are paid a remuneration covering the general costs of living (this has normally been in Finland around 1000-1500 €/month). The exact amount of remuneration is however decided by the employer because they will make a working contract with the trainee without ELSA’s involvement and as such the traineeships programme is quite flexible. More information about ELSA Traineeships you can read from the international website of the programme. If you got interested, don’t hesitate to contact us!
CONTACT US
If you have any questions about ELSA Traineeships, please contact the national or local Professional Development representatives (former title STEP representative).
ELSA Finland:
ELSA Finland board 2021-2022
ELSA Finland
professionaldevelopment@fi.elsa.org
ELSA Helsinki:
ELSA Joensuu:
ELSA Rovaniemi:
ELSA Turku:
Henna Pirinen
Vice President for ELSA Traineeships, ELSA Turku
