A key ability in today’s world is applying for a job. In order to be successful, writing CV and job application is of critical importance. For this reason these topics are included in the EACH/AMS programme.

On Wednesday 13.04.2016 Ms Heleri Olo from the UT Career service conducted a seminar (jointly for EACH and AMS students) on the “DO-s and DON’T-s” of writing a CV and motivation letter when applying for a job.

This seminar was the follow-up of the Employment/career session conducted by prof. Reiner Salzer at the EACH 2016 Winter School. At the winter school all participants were given a task to find a job offer at the RSC Jobs website and compose suitable CV and motivation letter. The CVs and motivation letters of students were then analysed both by prof. Salzer and by the UT Career service experts and the feedback was given by Heleri during the seminar.

Students found the whole exercise very useful. The employment-related session was one of the most liked sessions at the Winter school.

On 9-11 June, 2016 a Master Class on Quality Assurance in Analytical Measurements, jointly organized by the European Centre for Laboratory Excellence and the TrainMiC training community.

There are still some places available, so be quick and check it out at www.ec4le.eu/program

This Master Class targets those teaching or training in the area of metrology and quality assurance in chemical analysis (Metrology in Chemictry, MiC), either regularly (as teacher) or occasionally (e.g. adult learning). The aim of the master class is to:

• Keep up to date trainers’ technical knowledge, expertise and competence through a continuing professional development course
• Enhance training effectiveness and efficiency by raising knowledge on adult learning strategies and active learning theories through workshop and discussion
• Establish a long-term community of practice

It will also be an opportunity for you to network with the TrainMiC® and EC4LE communities and participate in the TrainMiC® convention as well as celebrate its 15th Anniversary. You can also join to brainstorm about the future. Who knows, if you are a newcomer, you might be interested in joining one of these communities?

We look forward to seeing you in Zagreb in June 2016! We promise you an educational experience unlike any other!

The second day of the EACH Winter school was full of excitement.
The key event of the second day was dissolved oxygen intercomparison between the student teams. The samples were water samples from the nearby lake Pühajärv. The student teams used optical oxygen sensors (based on luminescence), see the photo on the left. The seriousness of the intercomparison is underpinned by the independent reference values determined using the highly accurate primary Winkler titration procedure (developed by Irja Helm in her PhD thesis).

The results of the intercomparison will be summarized at the closing of the Winter school.

On the right you can see the group photo (Lake pühajärv is behind the trees) taken right after the lunch and followed by a spontaneous snow fight (photo on the left, below) where the “African team” (Ime and Olivier, in the centre) performed stunningly well in comparison to the Nordic snow fighters!

 The consortium committee spent most of the day interviewing students and discussing (including negotiations with university officials about maximum possible numbers of students) for distributing students to study tracks. The day ended with the long-awaited announcement that it will be possible to grant every student the preferred study track!

On the photo on the right you can see prof. Bergquist and his team taking pictures of the students selected for the Uppsala study track.

Today, on Jan 25, 2016, the first Winter School of the EACH programme started in Pühajärve (Estonia). Altogether 24 students from 17 countries participate (besides EACH students, also some other international students from Tartu have been invited). Leading European analytical chemistry experts act as teachers and supervisors at the Winter School.

The Winter School offers a diverse set of activities to the participants. There are lectures on advanced analytical chemistry topics, tasks on data analysis and choosing analytical strategies. One of the sessions is specifically dedicated to employment opportunities of analytical chemists. The most ambitious part, a full-fledged in situ intercomparison measurement (between student teams) of dissolved oxygen concentration in lake water, will be carried out on the second day of the Winter School.

The intense working is counterbalanced by winter sports activities and relaxing in spa/swimming pool.

Full information about the Winter School activities is available at https://each.ut.ee/EACH/each-winter-school/

During Nov 25-27, 2015 the training seminar “Quality assurance for Hg measurements in food and environmental samples” was held at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana. Ivo Leito participated as a teacher and conducted discussion sessions Validation data (Reproducibility, recovery, etc) and their meaning, Measurement uncertainty and Traceability: what it is and how to demonstrate it?.

The seminar was highly successful – there was in-depth discussion during each of the sessions and the discussions continued during coffee breaks. The measurement uncertainty session featured a full-fledged uncertainty estimation (contaminant determination by LC-MS), which the participants carried out themselves on laptop computers that they had brought with them.

It is expected that the collaboration between UT and Jožef Stefan Institute (and other research centres in the region) will continue and deepen.

We are glad to announce that the 2016 admission is officially open to the Excellence in Analytical Chemistry (EACH) Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree programme!

This international two-year joint master degree programme educates specialists in analytical chemistry well qualified to work in industry (food, pharmaceutical, materials, energy, etc) and chemical analysis laboratories (environment, food, health, etc) worldwide. EACH provides knowledge and practical skills in both fundamental and applied aspects of modern analytical chemistry. Practical internship placement in industry or laboratories is an important part of the training.

The programme is suitable both for students who have finished their bachelor’s studies and want to continue in master’s studies, as well as for working analytical chemistry practitioners wishing to spend couple of years to bring their knowledge and skills to a new level.

The programme features generous scholarships as detailed in the Scholarships and tuition fees page.

The programme is taught by four universities: University of Tartu (UT, coordinator), Estonia; Uppsala University (UU), Sweden; University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), France; and Åbo Akademi University (AAU), Finland. The language of instruction is English, but students will also learn to communicate in one of the languages of the countries involved.

The online application form, admission requirements, deadlines, list of necessary documents, instructions/explanations, as well as contact data for questions are available from the EACH Admission information page.