The “working holiday” programme is open to people between 18 and 30 years old and provides them with a one-year visa to Luxembourg or Taiwan. “This is indeed a fantastic opportunity for young people to spend a year in another environment in order to discover and absorb a different culture and different traditions,” says Tania Berchem, executive director of the Luxembourg Trade & Investment Office in Taipei. “Students on the programme will have the possibility to go either for language studies, short-term employment, education projects or tourism. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience in-between being a student and starting your professional life.”
During their stay, programme participants can freely travel in their host region and leave and come back several times. However, the visa cannot be prolonged beyond the initial 12 months.
This is indeed a fantastic opportunity for young people to spend a year in another environment in order to discover and absorb a different culture and different traditions.
The implementation of the programme will contribute to creating friendship and mutual understanding between people from Taiwan and Luxembourg. The long-term ambitions go even further. Ms Berchem hopes that the programme will lead to more exchange in business as well as in tourism and higher education, and adds: “It also allows us to promote our common shared values of openness, dynamism and reliability”.
The agreement with Taiwan is the third of its kind for Luxembourg. The country has already set up similar arrangements with New Zealand and Australia. “In order to give Luxembourg youth the possibility of benefiting from such a programme also in Asia, Taiwan became a natural partner as it has already implemented such schemes with ten other member states of the European Union,” Ms Berchem explains.