Online applications are invited for #Work4UN The Young Professionals Programme 2023. The last to apply for this programme is June 29, 2023.
About UN YPP
The Young Professionals Programme (YPP) is a recruitment initiative for talented, highly qualified professionals to start a career as an international civil servant with the United Nations Secretariat. It consists of an entrance examination and professional development programmes once successful candidates start their careers with the UN.
Application Process
The YPP examination is held once a year and is open to nationals of countries that are un- or under-represented in the United Nations. The list of participating countries is published annually on the YPP home page of the UN Careers website and varies from year to year.
Depending on the staffing needs of the UN, applicants are invited to apply for different exam subjects each year. Descriptions of responsibilities and required educational qualifications and professional competencies differ depending on the subject area. Eligible candidates who are interested in the exam area must apply through Inspira, the UN staff selection system. The basic application criteria for candidates include:
- Must be a national of a participating country;
- Must hold at least a first-level university degree relevant to the exam subject;
- Must be 32 years old or younger in the year of the exam; and
- Must be fluent in English or French.
All applications will be screened for eligibility for each exam subject. If more than 40 applicants from the same country are eligible for the same exam area, those applicants will be further screened and ranked based on the highest level of education completed, knowledge of official UN languages, and relevant work experience.
Examination Structure
The examination process consists of a written and an oral stage. The written examination is administered online and may be conducted in either one or two stages. Prior to finalizing the results of the written examination, candidates may be subject to further verification via a brief, online, proctored assessment.
The written examination consists of a General Paper and a Specialized Paper:
- The General Paper is the same for all YPP examinations that are scheduled on the same date.
- It must be completed in either English or French and assesses fundamental skills needed to work in a complex international organization like the United Nations.
- The Specialized Paper tests substantive knowledge of the subject area and often includes multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions.
- The number of questions may vary based on the exam area.
Candidates who pass the written examination will be invited to take part in the oral examination, which is a competency-based video-conference interview with a panel of members of the Specialized Examination Board. - At the end of the evaluation process, all candidates will be individually informed of their results.
- The YPP recruitment exam is not offered in every subject every year, so it’s important to check the website periodically to see if the test is being offered in your subject area, particularly if you are close to the age cut-off age of 32 years.
Recruitment
Successful YPP candidates will be placed on a roster used to fill appropriate vacancies, valid for a period of three years. It is important to note that placement on the roster does not guarantee an offer of employment. Candidates may be selected from the roster as relevant vacancies become available across the UN Secretariat Offices located in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva, Nairobi, New York, Santiago, Vienna and more. Successful candidates must be willing to be placed in a position at any UN duty station or field office.
- Once selected, candidates will be offered a two-year fixed-term contract at a P-1 or P-2 level with the UN Secretariat.
- After two years in their first function and subject to satisfactory performance, the young professionals may be granted a continuing contract.
- They will also be invited to participate in the Managed Reassignment Programme (MRP), which offers them the opportunity to be reassigned to another position of interest to them, normally in a different department and duty station.
- The objective of this programme is to provide staff with new opportunities to diversify and develop their career, acquire new skills and create a solid foundation for their career advancement.
Deadline
The last date to apply is June 29, 2023.
How to Apply?
Interested Candidates can apply through this link.
Important Updates of YPP 2023
The application period for the 2023 YPP exams is now open. Applications will be accepted through 29 June 2023. The job openings can be found on the UN Careers Portal and in Inspira. The exam areas and their corresponding job openings are:
- Economic Affairs: job opening #207015
Information Systems and Technology: job opening #207005 - Remember to watch the application guidance video to learn more about the process. And a quick reminder that candidates are allowed to submit an application for only one YPP job opening.
- Submissions to multiple YPP exams will result in an automatic disqualification.
- For UN staff members: please note that the job openings for internal YPP applicants are only accessible through Inspira, via “G to P” or “G to N” job openings, and are not available on the Careers Portal.
