Internships are a great way to enhance your career. They are work experience opportunities given to trainees or unqualified individuals who are intrested in a career in that field that want to gain hands on knowledge. Some of the positons are paid and some are voluntary but all are equally as valuabel and sort after. Internships are offered direct by a number of companies now in a bid to ensure employers have on the job experience not just in the correct field but in their compaby so they a re already familiar with company procedures and protocals, other internships are offered by larger agencies and organisations but are recognised along side the correct qualifications as pathways to employment as they provide the candidate with hands on experience as well as the theopoetical knowledge behind the job they will be doing.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Internships can be completed here in the UK but there are also lots of opportunities for individuals to complete them abroad in places such as New York, Tokyo and Barcelona to name but a few. If you are thinking about undertaking an internship but are unsure whether to remain in the UK or complete your internship abroad then you may wish to consider these four benefits of completing internships abroad before you make your decision.
Travel
One of the main, and most enjoyable, benefits of completing your internship abroad is travel. You can go places you have never been before and see things you have never seen. But more exciting than that, is that completing your internship abroad is far more than a holiday, it is a real-life experience with so many opportunities and experiences on offer. You won’t only be there for two weeks in a hotel with other tourists you will be living amongst the locals, working with them and seeing their country from a completely different perspective. You will be able to immerse yourself in the culture, learn new skills and make new friends for life. All of these experiences will help to shape you both professionally and personally and will have a lasting impact on you.
Improve your foreign language skills
If you decide to do your internship somewhere like Tokyo, Barcelona or Paris where the native language isn’t English then you will have an amazing opportunity to learn the local lingo. Being able to speak a different language, especially if it includes conversational words relevant to your career that wouldn’t normally be taught in language classes, is going to help make you stand out as a candidate when you go for jobs and/or promotions. The additional language is also going to help you stay ahead in your career and make it much easier for you to correspond with colleagues, clients or competitors from around the world.
Not only that but having a second or third language under your belt is a great skill and can be beneficial in other areas of your life too such as holidays, meeting new people and even helping with brain function.
Makes your CV stand out
Once you have completed your internship you will be able to apply for jobs in the field you desire to work in, along with lots of other interns. The competition is likely to be fierce and getting an interview may be difficult but if your CV has something like International Internships Tokyo written on it then the interviewers are likely to notice that above other applicants CV’s and want to know more about your experience, helping to secure you an interview.
Once in the interview you will then have the ability to talk about your practical experience from both a UK and additional country or cultural perspective which is bound to give you the edge over someone who completed their internship in the UK.
In addition to this you will also find that having work experience away from your own home also helps to show additional skills like resilience, determination, ambition and the ability to adapt to change and work under pressure, all things that will impress your potential new managers.
Increase your global network
Having lived and worked abroad you are likely to make friends and professional contacts. These will definitely be valuable to you as you progress through your career. It may be that they can help on projects or even give you the opportunity to return as a full-time employee in the future if you wish. With the world the way it is now international business is a given in almost all areas so having readymade contacts will be massively beneficial.
These are just 4 of the benefits of completing an international internship but there are plenty of others too. I hope this has helped you to see the opportunities they offer as you consider if they are for you or not.