International Internship: The Multicultural Workplace

In an increasingly interconnected global labor market, employers are looking to hire people skilled in the ways of diverse and multicultural environments. The ability to engage and communicate across cultures is an important dimension of the constantly evolving workplace that all ambitious job seekers eventually confront.

An avenue to total cultural immersion, this international internship gives you unique opportunities to gain a heightened sense of the challenges, subtleties and pitfalls of working and living in a culture other than your own. Participating in an international internship affords you the chance to put theory into practice and to apply classroom conceptual learning to the direct, professional and personal experience of the "foreign" workplace.

This international internship offers a dual-track program of learning and applied practice designed for the multicultural workplace. First, you will be placed in a 28 hours per week internship in the host country. Second, you will enroll in an academic seminar, organized by the CEA Dublin Center, where you will analyze and evaluate both the workplace culture and the daily office life you experience. Throughout the semester and in collaboration with interns from other business sectors, these seminars are designed to build the cognitive, behavioral and affective skills you need to interpret and navigate the multicultural workplace. To this end, you will use current theoretical approaches to global competence, intercultural communication and global business/workplace culture.

The International Internship program gives you professional work experience in a field of your choice, strengthens your written and spoken language acquisition, and develops intercultural skills necessary for success in the global workplace.