>

The Student Trainee Exchange Programme (STEP) enables law students and young lawyers to spend a period of time working abroad in a law related area. Thus introducing them to a different legal system and enabling them to gain valuable professional experience. ELSA supplements the traineeship schemes of law firms, companies, banks, universities, public and private institutions, and provides suitable trainees for both short and long-term placements.

However, traineeship exchange is not simply a process of bringing one university student or graduate from one country to another and placing them in a job. It includes an involvement in the community and in different ELSA activities, thus creating a powerful opportunity to learn by interacting with new situations and perspectives.

In Finland STEP has worked quite successfully when you look at this year´s results and compare them to the results before. In 2001 we had 12 traineeships in Finland and 7 Finnish students got the opportunity to do the traineeship abroad. One of the main reasons to the employers awareness of STEP is our STEP Team which consists of lawyers from different kinds of firms, judges and professors. By giving their support to ELSA these lawyers have made a great contribution to the success of STEP.