The Association IFA
The IFA association was established in 1995 as a service center to promote the mobility of skilled workers. Members include all the Austrian Economic Chambers, the Federation of Austrian Industries and the Junior Chamber Austria.
Today, IFA is the leading organization when it comes to international work experience. As a focal point for information and consulting for young people, businesses and educational institutions, IFA organizes work placements abroad, applies for and assigns the necessary funding and ensures the skills acquired abroad are recognized in Austria.
IFA specializes in assisting persons in vocational education and training and provides approximately 700 apprentices, students from vocational schools, trainers and VET experts with the opportunity to complete a work placement abroad.
Our fields of activity
- We organize work placements abroad for apprentices.
- We help interested individuals plan their work placements abroad.
- We help companies and vocational schools to establish and implement exchange programs.
- We support young people and adults from other EU countries who wish to do a work placement in Austria.
Work placements abroad should not be a one-off event, but an integral part of the training and thus make a lasting contribution to the internationalization of vocational training.
Why are work placements abroad so important?
Companies expect their employees to be mobile, flexible and to have international experience. Work placements abroad are the best way to improve your linguistic, professional and intercultural skills. You can count on IFA – Your partner for mobility!
All the work placements organized by IFA are funded from European or national programmes.
References
The Erasmus+ programme is one of the European funding programmes that IFA works with. IFA has been carrying out projects under this programme every year since Austria joined the European Union.
In addition, IFA organizes work placements abroad for apprentices as part of the Let’s Walz programme of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce.
Since it was founded, IFA has organized work placements abroad for more than 10,000 people. Through these projects, IFA has established far-reaching business contacts in Austria as well as with international partner organizations in Europe and beyond – an international network that is expanded with each work placement.
IFA is involved in numerous activities concerned with quality in mobility and the recognition of skills acquired abroad. This also includes the participation of IFA staff in various working groups of the European Commission as well as on behalf of UEAPME and Eurochambres for promoting mobility of apprentices and the participation in European cooperation and networking projects for the quality development in occupational mobility.
Together with the Federal Ministry for Labour and Economy, every year IFA awards Austrian apprenticeship companies with the EQAMOB label for special commitment to apprentice mobility.