Nowadays, European countries offer many opportunities for young students and recent graduates to get a professional experience abroad. If you belong to any of the state members of the European Comission and are willing to go abroad throught an ERASMUS+ scholarship, this is your site:  ERASMUS+ site ErasmusPro A new proposal to promote the quality and effectiveness of apprenticeships has been launched in October 2017: ErasmusPRO is a new initiative, within Erasmus+,that will boost the long-term work placements abroad (from 3 to 12 months). This is a positive step against the VET learners short term programmes results which included internships stays from 2 to 4 weeks. In real life, out of Brussels politics context, these programmes have been proved to be useless for both young pupils and hosting companies. Why? 2- 4 weeks of traineeship is not enough time for an intern to learn and to get confidence within the company activities. At the same time, local companies are reluctant to host young interns for such a short period since they cannot make up the spent time during the training. As a result, most young students come back home with a sense of failure as they expected to acquire more experience than they actually got. There are many factors for short term internships to failure. The interns are usually very young and lack both professional and language skills. Thus, destination companies related to their professional course decide: 1.- Reject the applicant as the company is aware of the communication problems that will arise between the local company and the foreign applicant. 2.- Accept to host the applicant with some restrictions. Usually they will give the pupil very basic tasks that, most of times, are out of the expected ones. 3.- Accept the intern as willing to give him/her an opportunity. However, this internship run the risk to be cancelled by the company due to the reasons mentioned above or with the intern’s withdrawal due to unability to fulfill his/her daily duties. For these and many other reasons that I will comment in future posts, long term internship initiatives are welcomed by both interns and hosting companies. TEN QUESTIONS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT FOR AN INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE ABROAD For those students’ teachers or sending school coordinators, for their students, who are excited to go abroad but need mental training before “the training”…these are my… TEN QUESTIONS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT Before the trip: 1.- During the selection process, try to demonstrate your willingness to join the project. How? Being flexible with the internship options they could offer you. Please, keep in mind that sometimes your aspirations do not match with the company’s expectations. Language barriers, lack of competences, negative attitude during the interview etc.  could be a handicap for you when selecting the beneficiaries of the project. Please, draft a quality CV with your educational and professional achievements. An elaborated CV will be the basis to get a good internship offer. 2.- Language of destination. Communication is essential for any individual to perform any kind of job. Sometimes English language knowledge is not enough for some professions or just to perform specific activities.  For this reason, you should be aware of your professional field boundaries and think on this same profession performed by a foreigner in your own country. Should this person speak your language to do so? For that reason we should apply for professions in which we will be able to communicate either with staff and clients of the hosting company. My advice: try to acquire, at least, basic knowledge of the target language, enough to survive and get valuable experience during your stay. At the company: 3.- First day at the company. Please, keep the usual dress code for your professional field. For some professions you should ask your internship coordinator about any clothes requirements such as safety shoes, specific clothes etc. It is very important to get a good impression of your internship supervisor at the company. First of all, listen to this person and then formulate any questions you may need to ask.  4.- Expectations. Sometimes the interns delude themselves with the job experience abroad.  High expectations in opposition to reality: a young intern, who lacks experience, language skills and educational process uncompleted, should be ready to perform basic tasks during the first weeks. Then, once the intern gets self-confidence into the new working context, his/her company supervisor could award him/her with more interesting tasks related to the professional profile. Sometimes, failure or success in an internship experience depend on personal attitude rather than on pre-acquired skills. 5.- Be always flexible and open minded during your stay abroad. You will enjoy a better experience if you keep with a positive attitude. 6.- Try to be empathic with the company staff as they should be with you. You must take into account that the staff needs to adapt to the new intern as well as you, the new intern, need to adapt to the new working environment. 7.- Reciprocity, in the sense of mutual exchange. This term is to be taken into account by both company and intern. They will spend valuable time during your professional training. As a payback, you will need to put in practice your recent acquired knowledge and maintain a hardworking attitude during the traineeship. 8.- Communication and personal relationships, are the basis to enjoy the traineeship stay. Be communicative and try to build suitable team-working relationships . 9.- New challenges. Be always prepared for new challenges no matter how impossible could seems at first view. This is real life and real companies need multitasking staff that are able to face difficulties by offering creative solutions. 10.-Try to enjoy both cultural and professional experience. Your stay abroad will enrich your professional skills but also it will contribute to your personal improvement. Good luck and please, be free to ask any questions out of these mentioned above! TRAVELLING ABROAD ALONE? Are you preparing your trip to do an internship abroad? Sometimes ERASMUS+ beneficiaries travel alone, out of the usual school groups that go all together with an accompanying school tutor. Some of your main fears could be: problems of adaptation to the new country, lack of language skills and, therefore, problems of communication, accommodation etc. However, travelling alone has also positive outcomes. You will learn quickly the target language, you will meet new people and, most of all, you will improve yourself as an independent person able to survive alone. Our advice.- Try to look for a shared flat with local students or with a native family. Family stay in the country of destination has many benefits:

• You will be able to practise the target language every day
• You will learn about the local culture and their citizens’ habits
• Being integrated within a local family will help you to understand their traditions and, consequently, you will adapt to the new context quickly

There are some sites that help ERASMUS to get a shared flat or hosting family. You can get in contact with:

• Erasmus Student Network (ESN of the city of destination)
• Local ERASMUS+ Intermediary Organizations
• Local University Service for students’ accommodation
• Other websites also offer rooms in shared flats like Airbnb but  this type of accommodation tends to be more expensive as they are focused on tourist guests.

  Please, feel free to ask us any questions. Good luck for this new challenge!