WCO Career Development Programme 2010/2011

Brussels, 17 June 2011

Report

The WCO Career Development Programme (formerly the WCO Internship Programme) for 2010/2011 ended successfully with a reporting session during which each of the Professional Associates (formerly known as Interns) made a presentation to the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General of the WCO.

The Programme is a fairly new initiative, having been launched in 2009 by the WCO, in cooperation with Japan Customs.It provides an opportunity for selected candidates to undertake work at the WCO Secretariat as a trainee and has the following aims: to enable candidates to obtain knowledge, skills and international work experience; to develop and enhance networks among WCO Members and the Secretariat; to enhance the research activities of the WCO in order to support and assist the Secretariat in its mission and tasks; and to develop a pool of highly competent candidates with expertise in WCO Member administrations.

Under the current 2010/11 Programme which commenced in September 2010, eight Customs officials from Afghanistan, Belarus, Benin, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Malaysia, Mozambique and Tunisia have been working at the WCO Secretariat.The participation of these eight officials from across the six regions of the WCO enables Members of the Organization to appreciate the Programme which has significantly enhanced and diversified the staff of the Secretariat. Participants will be leaving the Secretariat during early July.

At the end of the reporting session, WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya congratulated the officials on their completed research tasks and appreciated the contribution they had made to the WCO over the past 10 months. He also emphasized that each Professional Associate is expected to make further efforts to liaise with other WCO Members and regions after returning to their home administrations as this would contribute positively to knowledge sharing and help to strengthen the global Customs network.