Skills4Abroad

The relocation process begins with mental preparation. Our job is to ensure that you are fully prepared for your assignment abroad before you even board the plane and are also there for you afterwards.

© GIZ / Asja Caspari

Skills4Abroad at GIZ’s Academy for International Cooperation in Bonn-Röttgen

Campus Kottenforst is located in lush green surroundings on the outskirts of Bonn. You will be learning, living and relaxing side by side with other international cooperation professionals, sharing your thoughts on your future role, and preparing for the challenges that lie ahead in the country of assignment.

In its current and earlier forms, GIZ’s Academy for International Cooperation (AIZ) has been running trainings preparing staff for assignments abroad for over 60 years on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Our role is to ensure that employees seconded abroad by their organisations have the skills they need to work in international cooperation.

Our offer is designed to prepare experts and managers for the specific challenges they will face as well as to support them during their assignment. That includes learning how to stay safe, how to manage tricky intercultural situations, and how to communicate clearly and confidently in the local language. At the end of your preparation, you will have acquired all the skills you need to work effectively and sustainably in your partner country and to help bring about positive change. Our programme is open to participants for up to 2 years after their departure and many of our training offers are also available digitally.

Skills4Abroad – Questions and answers about the programme and the conditions of participation

FAQs

This sections answers the most frequent questions about our Skills4Abroad training.

BMZ funding

Will BMZ provide funding for participants on Skills4Abroad courses?

Fee-based participation

Further information for those planning to fund their own training.

The Skills4Abroad programme 2024

With the help of our offer in the field of "intercultural competence and country analysis" you will learn to better understand different perspectives and to act successfully in the light of social and cultural diversity.

With the help of our trainings, you will strengthen your safety awareness, learn to protect yourself and others against sexual violence and raise your awareness of how to deal with psychological distress, stress and trauma.

Language skills are the key to understanding. Our trainings support you in communicating confidently in the foreign language, making it easier to build mutual trust and master complex situations.

Good management and successful advice mean controlling processes in the existing context in such a way that they have a lasting effect. With our offer, you will learn how to effectively support your partners.

The compatibility of assignments abroad and partnership and/or family is an important issue for us. We prepare you and your travelling family members in the best possible way and accompany you during your assignment abroad.

You want to delve deeper into a topic or work efficiently on a topic you have defined. We support you in your self-learning process.