UN Young Professionals Programme 2012

Deadline: September 19th
Open to: young professionals up to 32 years old in the following disciplines: Architecture, Economic Affairs, Information System and Technology,  Political Affairs, Radio Producer (Portuguese + Kiswahili) & Social Affairs, who are citizens ONLY of the countries mentioned below.
Remuneration: the selected candidate will receive the positions P1 and P2 in the UN various duty stations worldwide

The Young Professionals Programme aims to bring fresh talent to the United Nations from un- and under-represented countries and to recognize talent already in the Organization. It was now in its second year after being launched in 11 July 2011 as approved by the General Assembly in December 2010 ( GA resolution 65/247 ).

YPP replaces older programmes and involves a faster placement process (with no rosters) and more opportunities for field experience and career progression then the earlier schemes.

In 2012, the YPP examination will take place on 5 December 2012 in the following job families:

• Architecture
• Economic Affairs
• Information System and Technology
• Political Affairs
• Radio Producer (Portuguese + Kiswahili)
• Social Affairs

Eligibility:

• Nationality: Must hold the nationality of a participating member state at the time of application
• Age: 32 years or younger (Date of birth: On or after 1 January 1980)
• Education: First-level university degree acceptable for each job family
• Language: Fluency in English or French
• Experience: No experience required

Participating countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Andorra , Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Austria,  Azerbaijan, Belarus,  Belgium , Bhutan,  Brazil, Brunei Darussalam,  Central African Republic ,  Chad Colombia, Comoros,  Cyprus, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany,  Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras,  Hungary, India , Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Italy , Jamaica, Japan,  Kiribati, Latvia , Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein , Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia,Mexico, Moldova,Monaco, Montenegro,  Mozambique, Namibia ,Netherlands, New Zealand , Norway , Oman,  Pakistan,Papua New Guinea , Paraguay, Poland,  Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands,Spain , St Vincent and the Grenadines, Sweden, Switzerland,  Syria,Tajikistan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,Togo, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States,Vanuatu

Interested candidates must apply for YPP online between 13 July to 19 September 2012.

While all official information for YPP participants is available and to be checked through the official YPP website on the UN’s career portal we are posting here the power point presentations of the three workshops (held in 2011) as reference and background information for participants.

Power point presentations used by experts in the Vienna workshop:

The YPP Process – (Gerhard Tripp, OHRM Vienna)

Preparing for the written exam – (Pieter Delcour, UNRoD, Vienna)

Preparing for the oral exam: competency based interviews – (Gerhard Tripp, OHRM Vienna)

Lessons Learned and Tips from participants in the YPP 2011

Written Exam

• Time-keeping is extremely important ( Four and a half hours seems long, but there is a lot of writing to be done. Avoid spending too much time on familiar topics.)
• Practice hand writing ahead of time. Practice time keeping. ( Do a full four and a half hour written exam with all four parts to check how much time you need for each, and to get a feeling for it. This also helps with practising handwriting as well.)
• Concentrate on the general part and try to do it really well (This part of the exam is marked first and candidates who do not score highly in this part are eliminated)
• Summarizing of texts is difficult ( not because of the content but because of the hand writing – normally with computers you can easily do a word count but with handwriting you do not really know how many words you have written)
• For summary writing, practise summarizing UN documents and time yourself
• Read and check the UN/NY website on a daily basis.
• Judge the value of each question and distribute your time accordingly.
• Answer every question, even if you do not know or are not sure. (Take an educated guess. If you don’t write anything you automatically get 0 points, but there are no minus points for wrong answers.)

Oral Exam

• know the UN Core Competencies and be able to relate to them with concrete personal examples and communicate these in a concise manner

Further information about YPP is available on the Careers Portal, where all examination updates will be posted. In addition, the Frequently Asked Questions may be useful for anybody who is considering taking the exam.

Competitive examinations for recruitment and placement in posts requiring specific language skills in the Professional category are administered separately, and are not included in this examination.