Research On The Competency Model For Interns In International Organizations

International organizations have become increasingly important in formulating international rules,promoting global governance,coordinating international relations,and setting global agendas due to the growing frequency of international interactions and the acceleration of globalization.Active participation in global affairs through international organizations not only expands a country’s international influence but also helps to gain more resources and support,therefore enhancing the country’s international competitiveness.In recent years,China has actively sought to participate in international cooperation,hoping to share with the world China’s experience and wisdom in global governance.Although China has paid fairly high membership fees in international organizations,the number of Chinese citizens working in international organizations are still not proportionately matched with the contribution China has made.To increase the number of Chinese personnel working in international organizations,it is necessary to understand what kind of talents international organizations need.Based on the understanding of competency required to work in international organizations,the programs in talent-training for international organizations in China can be optimized accordingly.Currently,research in the fields of talent training and competency in international organizations mainly focused on constructing competency models for official staff members of international organizations and analyzing the similarities and differences in competency requirements of employees of different institutions and different levels.There is relatively little research on the competency requirements of interns in international organizations and the career path of interns in international organizations.However,accumulating work experience and building contacts through internships is one of the important ways to enter the United Nations.Understanding the competency requirements of international organizations for interns is also conducive to training and selecting talents more effectively.Therefore,this study proposes the following research questions:1)What are the requirements of competency for interns in UN offices and their specialized agencies?Are these requirements different from those for formal UN employees?If so,what are the differences?2)Are there any differences in competence requirements for UN interns in different job families?If so,what are the differences?To answer these research questions,this study collected information on 248 United Nations internship openings posted on the official United Nations recruitment website up to January 31st,2023 and used content analysis to analyze the collected data.Adopting the competency onion model as the coding scheme,two coders coded the competency requirements in six dimensions of skills,knowledge,self-awareness,role orientation,motivation,and personality traits for UN interns.Furthermore,this study conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with six interns who had completed their UN internships to gain more insights into the competency requirements for interns in the UN.The study found that the United Nations places the greatest emphasis on skills for interns,particularly communication skills,and information technology skills,writing skills,planning and organizing skills etc.Since United Nations internships programs last for a maximum of 6 months,possessing corresponding generic skills can help interns quickly engage in their work and generate output for the team.Moreover,unlike the competency requirements for formal employees,the United Nations also put emphasis on interns’personal characteristics and motivations,such as being open-minded,resilient,adaptable,passionate,and mission-oriented towards UN’s mandates.Such requirements can drive interns to actively participate in challenging tasks despite not being paid or remunerated in any ways.In addition,this study also found that different job families have varying competency requirements.For example,public information and conference management positions put more emphasis on multimedia skills and innovative personal traits.Scientific positions require writing skills and research skills the most.Legal positions value professional knowledge,etc.This study further compared the current talent training programs for international organizations in Chinese higher education institutions and the competency model for United Nations interns.The comparison revealed two major problems in the current training.First,the competency cultivated in the courses in the programs are not coherent with the requirements in the competency model.Some important competencies,such as planning and organizing skills,adaptability and resilience,telecommunications skills,etc.are not adequately cultivated.Second,the current teaching materials are disconnected from the daily work in the United Nations.Based on these findings,this article proposed solutions to improve the effectiveness of the training programs of international organization talents in China.