The Diplomat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced a new call for grants for internships in the central services of the Department and in five Embassies abroad throughout 2023, for a total of 370,238 euros.
According to the Order of December 30, 2022, published last Thursday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and signed by the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Manuel Cuesta, the beneficiaries of the tests will be Spanish citizens who have passed the Interuniversity Master in Diplomacy and International Relations, taught at the Diplomatic School, and Spaniards who have passed the Master in Diplomacy and International Civil Service, taught at the CEI-Private Foundation Center for International Studies, based in Barcelona and whose board of trustees is part of the Ministry.
Of the 36 scholarships offered in the present program, 31 correspond to positions in central services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Cabinet of the Minister, the four State Secretariats and the Undersecretariat of Foreign Affairs) and five to positions in diplomatic representations abroad (specifically, in the Spanish Embassies in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Latvia and the Netherlands).
In addition, 32 of the 36 scholarships will go to students who have passed the Inter-University Master’s Degree in Diplomacy and International Relations taught at the Diplomatic School, and four to students who have passed the Master’s Degree in Diplomacy and International Civil Service of the CEI. The internships, which will last nine months, will begin on March 1 and will conclude on November 30, 2023.
In August 2019, the Ministry brought back the paid internship program, which was operational between 2006 and 2012 but was cancelled between 2013 and 2018, both fiscal years included, for budgetary reasons.
In 2005, the Diplomatic School launched the Inter-University Master’s Degree in Diplomacy and International Relations with the dual objective of preparing Spanish postgraduates who wish to deepen their knowledge in the analysis and study of the international reality and to facilitate the preparation of candidates for future entry into the diplomatic career.
Likewise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs created, as of the 2006-2007 academic year, a scholarship program for Spanish students of the Inter-University Master’s Degree in Diplomacy and International Relations and a second scholarship program for internships at the Ministry, aimed at those Spanish students who have passed the aforementioned Master’s Degree of the Diplomatic School. The objective of this second scholarship program is to complete the training in international relations of postgraduate students for a maximum period of one year. These internships allow them to learn about the tasks carried out in the central services of the Ministry and, therefore, to broaden and complete the theoretical studies acquired in the Master’s Degree.
From the 2019-2020 edition, the beneficiaries of this second scholarship program include students who are in possession of the Master’s degree in Diplomacy and International Civil Service, taught at the CEI-Private Foundation Center for International Studies. The inclusion of CEI students is intended to support study centers in other autonomous regions in an attempt to promote access to the diplomatic career at the national level.
