Abstract

Over last 10 years ve new countries - Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Estonia - have joined the European Space Agency. These countries are currently experiencing a considerable increase of space activities aiming to take part in the European and Global space market. New companies, start-ups and consortiums have been created alongside oces of foreign entities have opened their premises in these countries. All of them are searching for a new workforce, including graduates and young professionals. However, there is a gap between expectations set by space sector companies and presumed capabilities of fresh MSc/PhD graduates. One way to overcome this gap is to create a government-supported internship programmes. The example presented in this paper is the "Rozwoj Kadr Sektora Kosmicznego - Space Industry Human Resources Development". This program is nanced by the Industrial Development Agency of Poland (ARP). It allows fresh MSc/PhD graduates to gain their rst work experiences in the space sector. In 2016 and 2017 the program had 20 recipients starting their work at several local space entities, where they usually continue their employments following the internship. This paved the way for many talented graduates to join the space sector gaining lots of experience and adding value to the workforce based in the new countries and strengthen their presence in the space market. At the moment this proposal was written the program is nishing its second round, with the third already announced for 2018. The goal of this work is to present rst results from two rounds of the internship programme organised by ARP. This will highlight the experiences gained and projects in which such a program contributed in developing connecting directly this kind of program's importance to the development of the space sector.

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