Guidebook for International Employers

Dear Employer

2020-06-03

When you are reading this introductory internship manual, you have most likely been approached by a student from Bremen, who is interested in working for your company as an intern. International work experience is regarded as one of the essential elements of our curricula at the University of Bremen. For years, we have been encouraging our students to complement their academic studies by actively pursuing practical training opportunities, at home and abroad. Feedback from companies from all over the world has shown that these international internship endeavours are turning out as a mutually rewarding experience for all parties involved.

First of all, we would like to emphasise how grateful we are for your time and effort in dealing with the information presented here. When we decided to put together this brochure for the University of Bremen students, we were very much aware of the fact that international practical training periods for them fully depend on the interest and openness of employers across the globe. By taking on an intern from Bremen, you are significantly helping them to fulfil an important educational requirement. This booklet explains to potential employers the mutual benefits of having interns in their teams, as well as the relevant ways, objectives, and procedures for hiring a student intern. In the following pages, you will find information about the University of Bremen and its students, the goals of study-related practical training, the organisational framework for internship periods, and the expectations which both, students and faculty, have for a successful practical training abroad.

By clarifying all of these aspects, we hope to make the whole process and its implications more transparent. This will make your decision easier, as you will see that strengthening your workforce with a student intern from Bremen can be very rewarding to all parties. The University of Bremen’s Career Center, the publisher of this brochure, will be there to support you and answer any questions that may arise in your decision-making process, and that may be exceed dialogue with the student. Primarily, communication about a potential practical training opportunity will be between the students and employers, while the students will discuss the outcome of that dialogue with their advisors in Bremen. This way, administrative aspects regarding the students’ study programmes will be kept to a minimum for employers. The University of Bremen strongly believes that applying for an internship is part of the educational experience. We therefore encourage students to make their own arrangements and to select and approach companies and organisations by themselves. As part of this process, we are once again grateful for the time you invest in reading through this chapter.