International mobility

Apprenticeship in an international context

Over the past three years as an apprentice at Thales Alenia Space, I have had the opportunity to work in an international context, contributing to a major European space project.

I joined the multicultural teams of Galileo. My team was split between the French and German sites, with German, Italian and Spanish colleagues working on both sides. Since many of my international teammates did not speak, read or write French, English naturally became the primary working language during all my time as an apprentice.

In this context, I participated to all my meetings, including daily stand-ups, retrospectives and planning sessions entirely in English.

As the project is developed at the European level, the system itself is designed, conceived, coded and documented in English. Every document I read or wrote, every line of code and comment I contributed, as well as all interface elements were exclusively in English.

Additionally, the project follows a customer-focused development strategy, encouraging continuous client involvement through the product lifecycle. To support this, a three-day workshop is held every three months, bringing together internal teams, subcontractors and end users from various European countries.

Preparing for international mobility (POMI)

To prepare for my international mobility, I took the initiative to complete modules 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 of the POMI training program (Préparer et Optimiser sa Mobilité Internationale).

The video below summarizes the work completed and the skills developped :

International mobility : 6 weeks in Germany as an apprentice

During my second year as en apprentice, I had the opportunity to switch projects and was assigned to an international mission focused on knowledge transfer and integration support. This assignment allowed me to complete my international mobility at the Thales Alenia Space Deutschland site, in Ditzingen, near Stuttgart.

Over a period of six week divided in three two-week stays, I worked alongside a multicultural team of German, Spanish and Italian colleagues. Since they were ahead in the project timeline, I contributed to the integration of a new system and gained valuable expertise to transfer back to the Toulouse site.

This experience was highly rewarding. It was my first time working professionally in a foreign country, and the skills I acquired helped my colleagues in France to progress faster upon my return.

I am grateful to the colleagues there who welcomed me so warmly during my time abroad. They helped me to integrate into the work environment and kindly included me in various social events, which made the experience even more enriching and memorable.