The Australian Internships company has set up its first Irish office, giving hundreds of students around the country new opportunities for work placements abroad.
The new establishment will offer six-month work placements to students from many of Ireland’s top universities. Successful applicants won’t have to worry too much about financial stress, as the placements will include the cost of flights, visas and insurance.
Paid internships will be available to both graduates and undergraduates – those with qualifications in areas such as business, information technology, engineering and the hospitality sector being most sought after.
The internship programme was officially launched on Tuesday last in Trinity College, however students from DCU are also very excited about potential opportunities.
“I would definitely take the opportunity of an internship in Australia, firstly for the experience of working in a different county with different challenges than exist in Ireland and secondly for having a big interest in Australia as a country itself as there is so much to do and visit,” said Barry Murphy, a first-year business student at DCU.
The programme may perhaps offer young students the opportunity to escape the recession at home and start their career abroad. “As a nursing student, I think it would be better to go and work somewhere you are wanted and where you won’t have to face the cuts that nurses have recently been given here,” said Lauren Clarke, a final year nursing student.
“I would definitely go abroad for an internship. It is my intention to move to Australia in January 2014 and securing an internship over there would go a long way to ensuring I’m living comfortably over there,” said Journalism student Ben Egan.
However, the prospect of some internships being unpaid, particularly in areas like law and science, hasn’t been viewed too positively. “I guess it would be interesting studying different types of law over there, but if it’s unpaid I don’t really see the difference from doing it here,” said law student Carrie McMeel.
Killian Bowe
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