We are delighted to announce that a new thesis has been published on our website: A Case Study: A Profile of an Ideal Trainee at the European Parliament. Below you find the summary of the thesis.
A summary of the thesis
Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament in Luxembourg appears to be a perfect workplace to boost professional skills in terminology, linguistics and translation, develop personal qualities and at the same time enhance EU knowledge within the European institution. Trainees at TermCoord are privileged to work in two professional fields: terminology management and communication. However, it seems that in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the work environment of the Schuman trainees is more challenging than expected due to teleworking and remote communication.
Adopting a sociolinguistic approach, this research study strives to illuminate how the Schuman trainees construct a strong and flexible professional identity in the context of teleworking. The main stance of this work is to trace what factors shape the professional identity of TermCoord trainees, how switching to online communication influenced this process and what role the Global DISC assessment tool takes in shaping the professional identity of the trainees. Using a sample of five people, the author collected data from three sources: individual interviews, reflexive diaries, and a focus group interview.
The most important contribution is that the author has presented the benefits and challenges of the virtual workplace, expectations and reality of the work environment, how it is possible to grow in the institution from trainee to communication coordinator and how trainees comprise several roles in the workplace.
The results have shown that both COVID-19-related and not-related challenges impact the professional identity development of the trainees at TermCoord. The study’s results add nuance to our understanding of who the “ideal” TermCoord trainee is and what qualities a TermCoord trainee must have to “make traineeship a success” in the fast-changing environment.
You can find and read the case study on TermCoord’s official website here.
References:
- Khomiakova, Olena. 2022. A Case Study: A Profile of an Ideal Trainee at the European Parliament. Master in Learning and Communications in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts, University of Luxembourg.
Written by Olena Khomiakova
Olena Khomiakova started her career as a Communication trainee at the European Parliament in 2021. In 2022 she joined the European Parliament as an Intercultural Language Professional in the Multilingualism Unit. Olena is currently translating official documents into Ukrainian and adapting audio news and video content for the Ukrainian version of the EP website https://ukraine.europarl.europa.eu/uk/home.