To give young vocational and professional entrants an opportunity to work in development cooperation, various organisations offer special young professional training or qualification programmes. Several organisations are supported in this by the German Federal Government.

Promotion of young professionals in the field of international development policy is supported by the BMZ in the programme “Experts assigned to international organisations”.

The annual postgraduate programme of the German Development Institute (DIE) is an important instrument in promoting young professionals.

The Department of Rural Development, (SLE) is part of the Homboldt University in Berlin.  Every year, it offers a 12-month post graduate training for up to 20 university graduates in the methods and instruments of rural development, with a foreign placement offered for implementation in practice.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) - the former GTZ - trains young professionals as development policy experts. The training lasts 18 months. Besides a detailed preparatory phase in Germany, training includes a placement for up to nine months in GTZ programmes and projects abroad. This is followed by a placement with other development policy organisations.

The Centre for International Migration and Development – CIM  offers young specialists with little professional experience the chance of foreign placement as young professionals.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, prepares university graduates for cooperation with developing countries through its NADEL programme.

Malteser International prepares young people with a vocational or professional qualification for a placement in the field of humanitarian aid through work experience in Germany.