Deadline: July 19, 2016
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 career with the UN.
The YPP examination is held once a year and is open to nationals of countries participating in the annual recruitment exercise. The list of participating countries is published annually and varies from year to year. Each year, countries that are un- or under-represented in the United Nations, are invited to take part in the Young Professionals Programme.
Eligibility
- You must have the nationality of a participating country;
- You must hold at least a first-level university degree relevant for the exam subject you are applying for;
- You must be 32 or younger in the year of the examination;
- You must be fluent in either English or French.
Participating Countries
Below are participating countries:
Afghanistan, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Monaco, Mozambique, Nauru, Norway, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Qatar, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Somalia, South Sudan, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, United States, Vanuatu, Vietnam.
Examination Structure
In order to be placed on the roster for P1/P2 vacancies of the United Nations you need to pass the YPP examination, which consists of the written and the oral part. The total number of points a candidate can score in both parts of the exam is 1000.
- Written Examination: The written examination consists of two parts:
- The General Paper: which is the same for all exam subjects, tests your drafting and analytical abilities in English or French. It consists of a text of approximately 900 words, which needs to be summarised to around 300 words. The number of words may slightly vary between the two languages. There are no titles, subtitles or paragraphs in the text, which you have to summarize. You can score a maximum of 150 points in the General paper.
- The Specialized Paper: tests your substantive knowledge and analytical thinking. It is specific to the exam subject you are taking the exam in. This part of the written examination can be answered in any of the six official UN languages. You can score a maximum of 650 points in the Specialised paper.
- Oral Examination: If you are successful in the written examination, you will be invited to take part in the oral part of the examination which consists of a competency-based video-conference interview. Each candidate will be interviewed by an interview panel consisting of members of the Specialized Examination Board. The total number of points in the oral examination is 200. You can find more information on competency based interviews here.
- Results notification: Only successful candidates will be individually informed that they have passed the YPP examination. All remaining candidates will be informed through the Important Updates page that the examination process has been concluded. Please note that the time of notification may vary from one exam subject to the next, depending on the number of examinees in each one.
Learn more about the YPP Exam.
Application Process
- Carefully review basic application criteria on the YPP Home page.
- Read the job opening for the exam subject you are interested in and make sure you fulfil the requirements. The list of job openings can be found on the YPP Home page.
- Apply to the selected job opening through Inspira.
Additional guidelines on creating applications are available by clicking on the “Manuals and Help’’ link found in the upper right-hand corner of the webpage.
For more information, see FAQ or visit UN Young Professionals Programme.
