Presidential Task Force 2018 to Focus on SMEs

Published: March 1, 2018

Lara Kayode O. Kayode & Co. Lagos, Nigeria

The Student Trainee Exchange Programme (STEP) is a program organized by the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA), the world’s largest international, independent, non-political, and non-profit law students’ association. It is present in 44 European countries and has a vast network with a membership of 50,000 students and young lawyers at more than 300 European universities. The purpose of ELSA is to contribute to legal education, foster mutual understanding, and promote social responsibility of law students and young lawyers.

One of the key initiatives of ELSA is STEP, which enables law students and young lawyers to gain first-hand legal and cultural experience from another country. STEP has been a part of ELSA since 1984. Since then, the expansion of the program has been rapid and successful. Aside from matching student trainees with prestigious traineeship providers within Europe, STEP has expanded outside Europe in recent years and started cooperation with countries including Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, India, and the United States.

Now, there is a unique opportunity for your organization to join our program as a Traineeship Provider, which would offer several benefits.

First, STEP provides an opportunity to find a native speaker with first-hand knowledge of the respective legal system. As ELSA’s members are globally minded individuals who have an interest in foreign legal systems and practices, they have both cultural understanding and legal expertise. This allows participants to create more diverse and international working environments.

The program also offers promotion of participants’ offices across the whole ELSA network, which is constantly growing as more and more students and young lawyers join.

STEP is also different from other traineeship programs because ELSA provides trainees and traineeship providers with personal assistance and interaction throughout the traineeship.

Becoming a traineeship provider is very simple. Just fill out the Traineeship Specification Form, which entails stating the qualifications your organization would be looking for in a law student or young lawyer, including: education level, language skills, and legal experience. From there, ELSA will take over all administration and provide you with a list of pre-selected, quality applicants.

If you are interested in becoming part of the upcoming cycle, please contact Aneta KorcovÁ ([email protected])
by March 31.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of items in the INTA Bulletin, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.