Relief is sought in the Generalitat's engine room

"Until now, it was an option I hadn't considered, but from this experience, I see it as a possibility," admits Andreu López. He is one of the students in the Government's Noves Vocacions program, which offers 2,000 paid internships in the Generalitat administration. The initiative plans to offer 2,000 paid placements to university and vocational training students until 2028, with the aim of incorporating new profiles into the administration in view of the generational change it will have to face in the coming years. According to Government forecasts, more than 24,000 Generalitat employees will reach 65 years of age before December 2030, which is 12% of the workforce.The students who have already participated in the initiative value the experience positively. The experience has served them to discover an option that was often far from their first career choices. This is the case of Andreu Garcia, a political science student at Pompeu Fabra University who did his internship in the Department of European Union and External Action. "We are a very new team, and being able to feel that you are doing useful tasks and that they have a real impact on people is very rewarding," explains the student. Andreu also states that the internship has allowed him to question the negative image that still weighs on public administration. "You still see civil servants as people who are in an office and do nothing, but there is a lot of work and I have been able to confirm the power of public administration," he says.Marina Folch, a graduate in fine arts and conservation of cultural heritage from the University of Barcelona, is undertaking her training internship at the National Archive of Catalonia. She highlights being able to access spaces that are generally not very accessible. "Working in a space like the archive is a privilege, due to all the machinery and products that small workshops do not have," she states, and also remarks on the amount of work there is. "They are not a very large team, which is why all of us students on internships work, and a lot, just like one of them," she says.An extra motivation

One of the elements that differentiates the program is that the internships are paid, a relevant aspect for the interviewees. "In my career, they have been the only paid internships. This, when it comes to working, gives you extra motivation," explains Ivo Vizuete, a microbiology student at the Autonomous University of Barcelona who did his training at the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food. Ivo explains that, in the scientific sector, "the first option usually considered is the private sector." Nevertheless, the student assures that "he was worried about not having tasks to do," but that "from the first day he was involved, unlike many colleagues who do not enjoy the same experience".A similar situation is explained by Andreu López, a student who has been part of the Artificial Intelligence department. "In a first instance, in the world of AI, internships are focused on private companies," he points out. However, Andreu assures that efforts are being made in the department to incorporate AI and help workers. "The intention is to make the lives of the Generalitat's own civil servants easier, as there are often complaints about the speed of procedures, but they require a lot of time, and they involve work that used to be done by hand, and that we can now automate," adds the young intern.During the 2025-2026 academic year, 462 students enrolled in the program – 400 from university degrees and 62 from Vocational Training (FP) – and the Government plans to reach 2,000 places by 2028. In this regard, the program has a budget of 24.2 million euros over four years and more than a thousand tutors from various sectors to support young people, with the aim of making public administration "an attractive option". Marta Fonseca is an example, who, from the Public Agency for Professional Training and Qualification of Catalonia, tries to "open the gaze of youth" and convey "the vision of being a public servant" as an attractive career path. Fonseca explains that she had also been an intern in public administration, in this case at the Diputació de Barcelona, and that acting as a tutor for the project means "a kind of return to her training" to her.