Interns can bring a fresh approach to your work setting. They are keen to expand their existing skill sets and complement their academic training.

Within your organization, an intern can help:

• supplement existing staff during peak periods
• provide additional labour and skills needed to complete a special project
• provide an opportunity for permanent staff to gain supervisory experience
• boost your company's name recognition on the UBC campus
• facilitate links between you and UBC for possible research, teaching , and recruitment
• contribute to building a culture of global citizenship in the workplace
• develop new concepts from a unique cultural perspective.

These are unpaid, voluntary placements. Host employers are not obligated to hire interns after the internship nor are the interns meant to displace any regular, part-time, co-op or casual workers at the host organization or company.

Students come from well-recognized universities abroad and are recent graduates or are enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs in diverse fields of study at their home institution. Their English language proficiency ranges from intermediate to advanced.

Prior to starting their internships, all students complete a minimum of 120 hours of in-classroom seminars and specialized workshops and field studies in the academic portion of their program. They apply knowledge gained through projects, presentations and other assessment methods and must pass the academic portion of their program in order to be eligible for an internship.

All Global Academics internship students possess valid Canadian work/study permits for the duration of their program and have medical and accident insurance coverage.

To get a better idea of what our programs are about, view our Student Profile Interviews.

Some questions we encourage potential host employers to consider before taking on an intern include:

• Who will supervise and devise a plan of action for the intern?
• What tasks will the intern perform?
• What will the intern gain from the experience?
• What does the organization hope to gain from participating?

As a host employer, you will need to:

• interview the potential student intern for suitability
• assign a supervisor to the student who will monitor work-in-progress, answer questions the student may have, and complete the internship program evaluation
• provide an orientation and necessary training to the student including an overview of internship goals, outlining expectations and responsibilities in the execution of the work
• arrange for approximately 30 hours of work each week during the internship period for student academic credit and visa purposes. Schedules to accommodate special events or non-traditional work weeks may be arranged depending on the intern's availability and your needs
• be available to meet with a UBC Continuing Studies Internship Coordinator for an on-site visit to check-in about halfway through the placement on the intern's progress and discuss any feedback/updates you may have at that time
• complete an internship evaluation form and sign a Letter of Acknowledgement (provided by UBC) required for administrative and grading purposes and shared with the student. Note: You will need the latest Adobe's Acrobat Reader version to view and save your completed pdf form. Download the free reader.

Our internship coordinators are available for consultation and support at every stage of the internship. The program goal is to establish mutually beneficial matches between student interns and host employers.

Internship placements coincide with scheduled programs throughout the year and vary between four to eight weeks in length. Typically our internship periods run as follows:

• February (4 week placements)
• end-March to mid-May (8 week placements)
• May to June (8 week placements)
• mid-July to mid-August (4 week placements)
• October to November (8 week placements)
• November to December (8 week placements)

For exact start and completion dates or specific timing requirements you may have, please contact us.