Work and Study

Unpaid Professional Internship Program

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Program Overview

Ideal for students with an intermediate level of English who are fresh out of college, on a short stay in Canada. Study English at one of our partner schools, and then intern in the field of your choice - available fields include law, finance, architecture, marketing, engineering, and more. 8, and 16 week program options. Year round start dates.

Programs start at $2,120 Canadian Dollars.

A Once in a Lifetime Experience

Improve your English while gaining valuable experience in your chosen field              

A Canadian Internship can be a life-changing experience. Your stay in Canada will give you language skills and professional experience which will impress future employers and make you stand apart from other people your age.

Start your stay in the world's most liveable city - Vancouver, Canada - with full time English studies. During your school days you'll improve your English, meet other students from around the world, and join in exciting after school activities and weekend trips. Then finish this with total immersion into Canadian culture by joining a company in your field as a full-time intern.

Imagine working side by side with North American lawyers, investment bankers; imagine joining the marketing teams for major international brands, or working the front desk at a Vancouver hotel. Regardless of your age, your education, or your experience, there is an internship placement open for you.

Program Structure

Your unpaid internship program has a fifty/fifty (50:50) structure. That means that the first half (50%) of your stay in Canada will be spent attending English school full time. When you have finished your course at English school, you will then switch over to your internship host company for the second half (50%) of your stay in Canada, where you will intern full time.

You have two options* for length of study and internship:

You are entirely free to choose which option suits you best - though please keep in mind that the longer your internship, the more responsibilities you will have at your host company. If you would like more responsibilities, or if you feel that your English level is not satisfactory, we encourage you to choose a longer program.

*In some cases you can intern for a longer period in order to complete university requirements from your home country.

English School

The first half of your stay in Vancouver will be spent at an established and Languages Canada accredited English School. VancouverInternships works with two major English schools for this program. Both have similar class structures, skilled and interesting teachers, and exciting activities for their students.

While you are at your school you will study in either a Full Time or an Intensive English Course (depending on the length of your program). Your English Courses include speaking lessons in the morning followed by a wide range of English Elective lessons to improve specific language skills or learn about specific topics. Other available courses are Business English and Test preparation courses which will ready you for official English tests like the IELTS, TOEFL iBT and Cambridge FCE or CAE.

These courses are designed for student who want to improve their English language skills - particularly their speaking, listening, pronunciation, grammar, reading, writing, and vocabulary skills.

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Your Internship

From the day you arrive in Canada, VancouverInternships staff will be working closely with you to help you prepare for your internship. We will assist you with creating a North American resume, we will train you how to answer interview questions - and most importantly, we will arrange internship interviews for you.

Each internship student will have a choice of dozens of internship options - when you register for your program, you will be asked to choose three internship options and rank them in order of preference. VancouverInternships staff will then take this information, and together with your work history, your educational background, your English skills, and the duration of your stay - we will combine that together to find the most suitable placement for you.

Available internship placements include:

Internship Field* Required Skills Sample Internship Duties**
  Law MS Office. Law interns will work with a law firm in Immigration or Litigation law. They will assist with general office duties such as answering the phone, writing emails, and attending meetings. More experience students will be able to assist researchers and law clerks, they may also attend court to observe.
  Accounting Excel, ACCPAC, Quickbooks or similar. Basic understanding of accounting principles. Students in accounting placements often work in accounting firms, managing the finances for other companies. They assist with documentation related to regular tax filings, and with other office administrative duties.
  Architecture AutoCAD. Portfolio of previous school or professional design work. Architecture students work at architecture firms designing commercial structures and in some cases homes. They assist with refining drawings to add more detail and they often attend in-house lectures and tour construction sites with senior architects.
  Finance MS Office. Basic understanding of stocks and commodities. Knowledge of Bloomberg terminal an asset. Finance interns will find themselves at a securities firm or investment bank - working with senior investment advisors. They will research stocks and commodities, and assist with client appreciation and communication activities.
  Travel and Tourism Outgoing personality. Students will often work with travel agencies or tour operators. They will work on promoting travel packages, writing emails, attending meetings and in some cases, participating in tours.
  Hotels Outgoing personality. Higher intermediate to advanced English. Knowledge of a hotel booking computer program an asset. These placements are almost all exclusively at the front desk of a hotel. Students will greet new guests, take their information and provide assistance to them. They will answer phone inquiries and assist with check in and check out.
  Human Resources MS Office. HR internships are primarily in recruiting. Students work as full members of a recruitment team. They post job advertisements online and in print, they help draft or refine job descriptions, they file applications and participate in candidate screening.
  Environment Strong interest in the environment and knowledge of threats to the earth. Students interested in the environment work in an environmental advocacy organization. They assist with office administrative duties and help out on the advocacy and public relations teams - trying to expand public awareness of their issues.
  Marketing and Advertising MS Office. Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver are major assets. Marketing students can be placed in a marketing firm, or within the marketing department of a major firm. They will perform administrative duties and may be assigned to a single, or to multiple campaigns. They will assist with developing advertising company, and in some cases presenting and implementing their own marketing plan.
  Events Planning MS Office, must be able to deal with stress. Highly organized person. Event planners organize public and private events for corporations and public organizations. They coordinate promotion and the logistics of events, and in some cases also arrange ticket sales. Interns here will work primarily with the logistics team, working with suppliers and venue organizers to ensure that events run smoothly.
  International Trade Previous experience or education with customs broking, or freight forwarding. Excel. Students will be placed with either a freight forwarded or a customs broker. They will help senior people in the company to complete important customs or shipping documents, and they may conduct research into new clients and new suppliers.
  Insurance Strong interest in insurance. MS Office skills. Insurance students work at auto insurance or some private health insurance agencies. They assist in all positions around the office, including sales and operations. They greet clients and perform administrative duties such as completing forms and responding to emails.
  Community Service No additional requirements. Community service students will assist with community advocact and aid groups. They will work at health NGO's or poverty NGO's. Students will be able to choose between administrative duties, and 'front line' duties assisting those in need.
  General Office Basic computer skills. General office positions can be in any type of firm. Students here often work in different areas of the firm, depending on the day of the week. They perform administrative duties, attend meetings, and learn about Canadian business practices.
  Biology Completion of 2nd year university in biology. MS Office. Mature. Because of safety rules, this internship isn't as 'hands on' as many others. Students will be placed with a bio-medical research centre, where they will perform support duties for senior scientists. They may also provide relief in the administrative office of the organization.
  Chemical Engineering Completion of 2nd year university in chemistry. At least 20 hours of lab experience. Chemical engineers will gain hands on lab experience testing products and envrionmental toxins with Vancouver area labs. They will work under senior scientists and participate in real research.
  Engineering Any one of the following: soldering skills, embedded systems programming skills (C), Solid Works, CAD. Engineering placements can be done in research and development with innovative firms developing new products, or they can be 'hands on', with turnkey production of manufactured items. Students will get an overview of production from CAD to CNC and everything in between.
  Graphic Design Intermediate skills (or better) in Photoshop. Illustrator, InDesign or Corel Draw would be an asset. Portfolio of previous work. Graphic designers will work at advertising firms and within the marketing departments of other firms. They will assist with the creation of logos, brochures and advertisements using software such as Photoshop and Illustrator.
  Software Engineering Knowledge of C++, Java, and at least one DB language. In this internship, you will work at a software company developing, testing, and refining new software products. You will work as a member of a development team and you will be closely supervised in your internship duties.

* Due to Canadian visa regulations, we are not currently able to offer internships in health care or in child care.
** Your specific internship duties may differ.

 

If your field isn't listed above, please contact us and see if your desired position is available.

Once you pass your internship interview, you will start working with a company full time. During this period you will go to the company, and not to school. You will work under the supervision of a Canadian professional, and you will be a full member of your host company's team of employees.

Each week and month throughout your placement, you will complete regular internship reports - these will tell us how you are doing and what challenges you are facing. If there are any difficulties during your placement, we will work with you and your host company to solve them. Once your internship is finished VancouverInternships will work with you one more time to help you obtain a Letter of Reference from your employer.

To find out what past students have said about their internships, please visit our testimonials page.

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Accommodation

After a long day of studying English or working at your internship host company, you'll need some real accommodation to take a rest.

It is a very good idea to stay in accommodation with a Canadian family for all or part of your stay in Vancouver, Canada. Homestay or Rooming will allow you to see the city, make friends, learn how to get around and do things by yourself.

At a Homestay, students live, eat, and socialize with Canadians in a comfortable environment. Our families are very good. Our homestay coordinators use families who take a genuine joy and interest in doing Homestay and are happy to have students in their homes. We will place you in a house with a Canadian family, no more than 45 minutes from downtown, and who speak English as their native language. We can guarantee that there will be no more students who speak your same language. You can enjoy meals at home because you will be one of the family members. All families have passed a rigorous selection process and we often visit them to guarantee their quality.

NB Accommodation is not included in the listed program price.

Prices

Prices below are for bookings made in 2010. All prices below are in Canadian Dollars.

Program 21-hour ESL program 27-hour ESL program
  8 weeks (4 weeks study and 4 weeks internship)
$2,120 Canadian Dollars
$2,323 Canadian Dollars
  16 weeks (8 weeks study and 8 weeks internship)
$3,130 Canadian Dollars
$3,536 Canadian Dollars


Fees above include: school registration, school tuition, school materials fees, and internship placement. Accommodation and meals are not included in the above fees.

Accommodation and other services

Homestay Placement Fee      $210 Canadian Dollars (Non-Refundable)
Homestay Placement Fee - 2nd Placement      $100 Canadian Dollars (Non-Refundable)
Homestay Fee Per Session (28 days)      $840 Canadian Dollars (Full Board)
Additional Nights / Fee per night      $210 Canadian Dollars
Airport Transfer      $80 Canadian Dollars

 

Registration

Participation in a Work and Study Unpaid Internship Program is open to anyone. Start dates are available year round and you can register as little as 6 weeks before you intend to arrive in Canada.

To enrol in a program, please read all program Terms and Conditions, then complete an online application form. Our sales staff will be in touch with you within 48 hours to review your application and discuss placement options. Once they have given a first approval of your application, it will be sent to our placement team for final approval. Final approval will be granted after a successful phone interview with our staff. During the phone interview we will assess your English, to ensure that you have at least lower intermediate spoken English.

Once you have final approval, you will be invoiced and once payment is complete, you can apply for your visa and schedule your trip to Canada.