"I am doing my internship at a company in Brisbane city for 16 weeks. I am very happy to be here. All my colleagues are very nice and friendly with me. I am in the Environment service and I am doing a project about solar energy. But I have the chance to go with one of my colleagues to see on what her job consists of. So I can see beautiful areas of the region of Brisbane and Queensland, Stradbroke Island for example. I can learn a lot about Australian vegetation as grass and trees, that are protected and Australian native vegetation. I am having a great experience and the chance to discover the beautiful country of Australia. It was my dream and I am here now!"

- Intern

"Due to my studies in Germany I needed to do an internship about 8 weeks in a company in the working field of tourism. I've decided to complete it overseas, because I was on the one hand interested in the different culture and on the other hand I saw the advantage for my English skills.

In July 2008 I started my internship at a big Cruise Ship company, where my supervisor Mel welcomed me and presented me to the other girls in the office. I started with a trainee program on the computer, where I got an overview of the different cruises. In the afternoon I got the chance to test the lunch cruise. The captain showed me every part of the ship from the bridge to the engine room.

The next weeks I changed my working place every few days, so that I got to know every sales agency. After a few days I was able to work for myself in the booth, whereas my supervisor was always there to support me in any inquiries. The colleagues I worked with were a mix of all ages and nationalities. Some of them had the same age as me, so that we had a friendly acquaintance with each other, even if they were still my boss.
During my whole internship I was always in close contact with my internship supervisor, what helped me to review my own proceedings.

After every working day I did the balance, where I needed to count the money I've earned and to document everything. Afterwards I handed the money and my paperwork over to the cash controller, who was in charge of the whole money transfers. My Host Organisation as a big enterprise was a good choice to prepare myself for the studies, because I dealt with lots of different economic topics like advertisement, supply and demand and finances.

All in all the time in Sydney was unbelievable, I felt comfortable the whole time, my host family was very nice, so that we talked a lot about many different themes from TV shows to political issues. During my internship I developed on the one hand my English skills and my independence, on the other hand I've learned all about the economic issues of a big company. I can recommend everybody to absolve such an internship abroad."

- Intern