The official traineeship scheme of the European Commission, also known as the Blue Book Traineeship, is a traineeship programme providing official in-service training with the European Commission.[1][2][3][4][5] Aimed at young university graduates,[6] it has been running since 1960 and is the biggest traineeship programme in the world.[7] Traineeships, which start in October or March and last five months,[8] are carried out in a Directorate-General or a service of the Commission, in a Commissioner's Cabinet, or in some of European Union's executive bodies and agencies.[9] The programme is managed by a dedicated Traineeships Office within DG EAC, with an annual budget of €7 million,[7] that runs a selection procedure to recruit approximately 600 trainees (also called Blue book stagiaires) for each traineeship period.[10]