In this Online EU Training webcast, we cover everything you need to know about the 2011 EPSO assistant (AST1, AST3) exams/competitions. These include eligibility and the typical tasks of EU assistantants, place of work and benefits. We will also discuss the best preparation and practice strategies and how Online EU Training can help.

Jump to Other Segments

>  A Day of an EU Assistant
>  Eligibility, Languages, Experience 
>  Pre-Selection, Test types 
>  Scoring, Practice, Assessment
>  How Can Online EU Training Help?

Video Transcript

Good evening. Welcome everybody to Online EU Training’s webcast for the EPSO Assistant Exams something that we are going to cover here in one hour. I would like to thank first of all the number of people interested in this topic which we’re something very enthusiastic about and I’d like to share as much information with you as possible. This is a live broadcast and right now as we speak there are historic meetings happening right across the street but equally historic for your personal careers is hopefully all the information that will help you get an EU job.

My name is András Baneth and I am a Senior Partner at Online EU Training and Arboreus - the company operating the website and I as said this is 6:00 PM in Brussels but we have participants from basically all over the world and I’d like to appreciate their time in different time zones around. An important disclaimer I’d like to add is that while we do everything in our power, everything that we can to provide you with the most accurate and with the most up to date information possible, the official source of information is obviously the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO).

Today, Gabor Mikes who is the Managing Director of Arboreus and Online EU Training, he’ll be helping you with the chat and moderating and helping with the technical issues. One thing that I’d like to encourage you to do is to join the Facebook chat or if you are watching this on our Facebook page then obviously you are logged in, if you are watching it through the live stream website, please log in and feel free to chat, discuss ideas, and something that we’ll look at and if there are some questions, we’ll do our best to answer them afterwards.

Just to warm up and get you into the mood of dealing with projects and organisation task and other issues, here’s a little cartoon that we shared on our Facebook page and it attracted quite a number of positive feedbacks and this is a nice cartoon on how different projects or generally communication issues while delivering,  organising and prioritising. How certain communication issues can lead to different perceptions of the very same issue, of how a project is seen by a customer, project leader, sales executive and what the customer actually needed.

We received a number of questions from you so thanks very much and we have tried to integrate the answers in today’s presentation. Whatever cannot be covered today will be answered in one way or another, we either put up a new tips and tricks chapter or we answer it in a Memo, we’ll decide on the format, but be aware and make sure that you will get the answer to your questions. We will definitely send you the full recording of this webcast within one day of the event so you can either re-watch it or share it with others cause the most important thing is that the information travels to the widest possible audience.

One technical comment before we delve into the essence of today’s webcast is that try to put your screen on full screen mode. I think that’s the F11 or Shift+F11 key on most computers and that provides you an even better visual experience when we are sharing the Powerpoint with you.

A Sample Exercise

An appetiser which is relevant task and relevant exercise for both the AST1 and the AST3 modules or AST3 exams and this is something or the type of question that you are going to face both at the AST1 or AST3 whichever of the two you are going to take. This is a type of question which is the organising and prioritising. As a sample that you see on your screen, is a little task that I would encourage you to look at and it says:

‘You need to go from Lelystad to a meeting in Aalsmer that starts at 08:00. The meeting place is 10 minutes from Aaslmeer bus station. Which bus from Lelystad do you need to take? And here is the chart that would help you make your choice or make your pick and decide which bus should be taken. Obviously in an EPSO test, you will have the A, B, C, D, options and this is something that we did not show here right now but for the sake of familiarizing yourself with this type of exercise, we put it up.

So here is a chart you would look at the departure times, you would look at the arrival times, but do not forget that there is a 10 minute walk implied in the end. So what you would look at in this chart in an organising prioritising set, is something like: how long is the bus journey? When does the bus leave Lelystad? What time it arrives? Obviously you calculate and then you look at the Amsterdam-Aalsmeer leg of the journey and you keep in mind the 10 minute walk in the end.

So, in this organising and prioritising exercise, if you had picked the 06:10 bus, then you would be late for the meeting so that would be the wrong answer to provide in an EPSO test. So in that sense, the 05:30 bus is the one that should be chosen in a similar organisation and prioritization test. But don’t worry, we’ll come back to this type of test then we will cover what it exactly it entails and we will talk about where it fits in the overall system, in the overall exam procedure and you will understand much better a few tricks of how to master this type of tests.

Our Website

Now, one word about our website that you might be already familiar with is that we have more than 58,000 registered users which we are very grateful and thankful for your confidence and something we pride ourselves with this is that hundreds of them are now EU Officials. And we have quite a large number of following on Facebook and to encourage you to come and like our page because there we share lots of information about exams, about tips and tricks but we also try to share entertaining and interesting information related to the European Union, related to the exams and related to the overall idea of working in an exciting international setting.

Now, we offer test packages to help you prepare for the exams. We offer webinars which are online trainings interactive 2-hour trainings, where we train you on different parts of the exam to master the selected parts, the little tips and tricks and the little ideas of how to make the most of it and be among the top number of candidates.

Today's Agenda

Now, today’s agenda is going to be the following. We will look at what a day in the life of an EU Assistant is like? What does it mean in practice to be an EU Assistant? Hopefully when you pass the exam, you will have a better idea of what you are actually putting so much time into, so much energy into, to pass those exams and get the job that you have been struggling for so hard. After that we will look at the different positions that are available in the current call for application, in the current recruitment competition. Once we cover the different positions, we shall see one of the most fundamental questions that concerns so many people and this actually took up a large majority of the questions we received, “Are you eligible?” What are the conditions and the criteria of eligibility? And then a few words on why working as an EU Assistant is a great opportunity which will be followed by a brief discussion on how actually to get the job. What are the different parts of the exam?

Once we’ve covered the issues relating to getting the job, what are the next steps?  What to do in an action oriented way to be a part of their recruitment competition and take part in the pre-selection phase which is then followed by the assessment centre. And the two last parts of the today’s webcast will cover issues relating to preparation and we will finish off with a special exclusive offer for everyone who is following us today so that you can make the most out of your preparation. We’ll give a very special unique discount on all our services so you can really make the most out of the EPSO Assistant exams.