Belgium Country Programme Trainee

Belgium Country Programme Trainee

Lie Detectors

Brussels, Belgium

Lie Detectors is looking for a Brussels-based trainee with excellent French and German language skills to support our media literacy programme. Blue book trainees are encouraged to apply.

Are you a recent graduate looking for meaningful work in a Brussels-based traineeship?

Here’s a chance to join our award-winning team and tackle disinformation in Europe. International news literacy organisation Lie Detectors employs trainees who will help us promote news literacy and critical thinking through our work with journalists, schools, researchers and policymakers.

You must have drive, an eye for detail and be fluent in French/German and English. This full- time traineeship runs for four months, with a possibility of extending to six months and, at times, career progression. Numerous trainees stay at Lie Detectors as full-time employees.

We are filling this position at short notice and will review applications daily. Start date is April 14, 2025 and formal application deadline is March 14, 2025. We may expedite contact with strong candidates.

Lie Detectors is committed to building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and everyone is encouraged to apply. Lie Detectors is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, disability, national origin, protected veteran status, age, or any other status protected by applicable national, federal, state, or local law.

We strive to maintain a healthy work/life balance across the team.

To find out more about our work and impact, you can watch this video: https://vimeo.com/854268944.

Responsibilities

Reporting to our Belgium Programme Head, the Belgium Programme Trainee is responsible for supporting Lie Detectors’ operations and contributing to the smooth running of the country programme in Belgium and Luxembourg. In detail, the function and role of the Belgium Programme Trainee includes, but is not limited to:

• Supporting the organisation of training workshops and interventions for journalists, teachers and schoolchildren. This includes:
  • Sending template emails, reaching out to teachers and journalists;
  • Entering and processing completed questionnaires to gauge impact and assure quality;
  • Maintaining an orderly database, updating contacts, payment processes, etc.
• Supporting event planning by assisting in research of event locations, organising get- togethers with our journalist community, catering for our training activities with journalists and teachers, etc.;
• Independently conducting online searches in French/German and English;
• Participating in meetings and writing minutes;
• Administrative support where necessary;
• Communication support where needed.

Ideal Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor’s degree or similar degree/work experience in communications, journalism, education, political sciences, human sciences, business studies or related fields;
• Knowledge of education and/or media in Belgium;
• Familiarity with education and/or media in Europe is a plus;
• Demonstrated interest in our field of work – journalism, education, public policy and/or media literacy;
• Experience with editing, research, reporting, filing of documents, PowerPoint presentations, scheduling, etc. We love Excel at Lie Detectors and use Microsoft Office;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Professional fluency, both verbal and written, in French/German and English;
• Detail-oriented and organised;
• Familiarity with contact databases such as Salesforce is a plus;
• Available full-time from 14.4.2025 onwards, for at least four months (maximum 6 months).

We offer

• Meaningful and impactful work on a globally significant topic;
• An exciting international workplace with a dynamic motivated team;
• Opportunities to learn new skills and to learn about the fields of journalism, education policy and media literacy;
• Interesting contacts;
• A full-time, paid traineeship of at least 4 months, under general conditions for Condition d’immersion professionelle (CIP) by Bruxelles Formation.

Location: This traineeship is based in Lie Detector’s international Brussels office – Mundo Madou Building next to Madou Underground station.

If you’re the right person for this role, email us at jobs@lie-detectors.org with the subject “TRAINEE BELGIAN PROGRAMME” today!
We review applications daily and may expedite contact with strong candidates.
Final submission deadline is 14.3.2025.
Start date is 14.4.2025.

About Lie Detectors

Our award-winning organisation aims to turn schoolchildren in Europe aged 10-15 into powerful critical thinkers in a world increasingly populated by propaganda and distorted facts online, empowering them to understand news media, make informed choices and resist peer pressure as they assemble their worldview.

• To turn working journalists and selected media experts into active participants in the drive for news literacy, creating positive contact between journalists and children as well as their teachers;
• To attune teachers to digital media risks, to the tools available to counter it, and to the benefits and relevance of further classroom discussion of a topic often relegated to IT lessons and after-school clubs;
• To create memorable classroom experiences and lasting awareness of children’s own participation in social networks; to propel pupils into an ongoing conversation of news consumption and verifying news;
• To provide a link between schools and the very best existing news-literacy and news- verification initiatives;
• To influence educational policy-making through continued public speaking in varied fora, advocating for the systematic uptake and inclusion of news literacy in the curricula of teacher-training colleges and classrooms across Europe, as urged by Unesco and OECD. As part of this remit, Lie Detectors has served as a member of the EU’s High Level Group on Fake News and the EU Expert Group on Digital Literacy, advising the European Commission on how to tackle the spread and socio-economic impact of disinformation.

For further information, see Lie Detectors featured here:

• Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/0fa3ab8a-2412-11e9-8ce6- 5db4543da632;
• OECD: https://soundcloud.com/oecdtopclasspodcast/episode-26-how-can-we-help- young-people-tackle-misinformation-during-covid;
• BBC Women’s Hour https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000lghl.