Every year, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) offers a limited number of university graduates a five-month traineeship:
from 16 February to 15 July (spring session)
from 16 September to 15 February (autumn session)
Each trainee is assigned to a specific department of the CoR. The nature of the work depends largely on the unit. Some units are more politically oriented, others are more administrative. In general, the type of work assigned is equivalent to that performed by junior executive-grade officials (AD5).