Recently a man published a book, who wrote about his experience as an intern clerk in South Seas Resort in Florida for a year. It is the book "Do you go to study language with investing money overseas? I go for an internship with gaining money" by Shin Jun-jo.
He thought everyday about what is the best way to go abroad to study English. Finally he decided to go for intern clerkship because he would be able to earn money, study English and have a career.
It was the U.S. where the first internship program was begun. Before students took up their formal job, many universities and colleges began to send students to companies under the industrial-educational agreement in 1950's.
Like this, the internship program started, but after 10 years there were insufficient number of interns among the Americans. So the program was opened to foreigners. Some 5 million people from about 50 nations around the world participate in this program nowadays.
The internship program in Korea was begun in 1998 under the administration of International Monetary Fund(IMF). Korean government provided domestic internship program to help the jobless survive. But it was not totally successful.
As the government strengthened up the program, the internship program was renewed for the first time. The internship program in Korea became known widely as 21 students left for Florida.
These days, most university students go abroad to learn a foreign language spending lots of money. To study overseas is a good way to learn a foreign language, culture and so forth, but it is limited to studying one major theme.
In contrast, the internship program provides work opportunities in some companies, hotels, restaurants, etc. in foreign countries. Many advanced businesses invite applications for the position of intern clerkship around the world every year. It helps each business to grow internationally.
In the U.S., the original nation of intern program, most students used to work as an intern clerk in summer vacation. Because the summer vacation is very long from middle of May to the end of August, it is important how each student spends the vacation for deciding what to do after graduating.
For example, it is essential to have an experience in a hospital or in the field of health care for a student who wants to go to into a medical profession. There was a Harvard student who wished to become a reporter. He worked as a intern clerk in "Newsweek", the weekly newsmagazine, but he didn't take deep interest in the reporting job so he decided to major in economics.
However, it is not easy to be an intern clerk of a fine company in one's major field. Many students must expect a strong competition. There are a lot of students who take up a simple part time job at a place, such as fast food restaurant, grocery, small office and so on.
According to an announcement by American Savings Educational Council (ASEC), the average hourly wage of students during summer vacation is 6.69 dollars, and the sum is about 1000~1500 dollars in the period.
Then how can Korean students participate in the internship program overseas? Although the history of the program in Korea is short, many students consider it to be a way of studying a foreign language. Because it has a merit that they can not only study language but also gain money.
Above all, if get to know more about the internship programs of your own interesting field, it is very helpful for you to decide on your official job in the future. Especially, you can acquire international sense effectively by means of substantial practice with fellow workers for various nations around the world. When you want to get a job or promotion, the experience will give you an advantage over other people.
Nam Dae-hee, the reporter of business section of Hankook Ilbo was an intern clerk of Siliconvalley.com from May to July in 2000. Siliconvalley.com is the Internet's most timely and in-depth technology news site, delivering up-to-the-minute news and opinion to fast-track technology managers and key industry decision-makers.
She was in the news editing team. She collected news materials and wrote them as fundamental affairs. Besides she took the business affairs about Asia on her own responsibility. She said that she was happy to experience the world journalism, and that she was surprised with the attitude of the American reporters who tried to write good news rather than make a scoop.
Like this, the internship program is a good way if you use it well. But you must be careful before you choose an internship program, because there have been number of victims deceived by vicious recommendation companies.
There are quite a few instances that some students had an unexpected and strange job. "I went to a hotel in Las Vegas to work as an intern clerk, but I worked as an employee controling cabinet keys for guests and cleaning the pool.", said Mr. Park, 27. "In addition, there were many Korean and Japanese people. I was familiar with them so I couldn't improve my English."
Nowadays there are some agencies that manage all tasks about internship program on behalf of each individual. There are about 5 famous agencies. Some are affiliated with foreign agencies. If a student selects this agency, he will pay about 2.40~2.60 million won for a year.
But you must not trust the agency completely. You should check up the stipulation carefully. It is essential to confirm how much you get as the salary; whether you have weekends or not; if you can stop working with a short notice, etc.
Korean Government announced that it will support internship program in the IT field. Every year the government will select 400 university students, and support each student by maximum 5 million won. As you see, the internship program is an excellent course to have a practical career.
However if you don't prepare for it scrupulously, it will harm your life. When someone has an intention of becoming an intern clerk, he or she must collect much information about the program. And it is a good idea to hear from a person who already has experience in the same program. Then why don't you go abroad as an intern clerk?