A few months ago, whilst sifting through the usual plethora of overnight emails, there was one that particularly caught my eye.

It read like this -

“I am working for the French Business Schools since 2004, and I am in charge of helping some French students to find a company based in London for their UNPAID Internships.

There is NO fees, NO expenses for your company as it is a TOTALLY UNPAID Internship (We are covering ALL the expenses, There is NO Costs, NO Expenses, NO Fees for your company).”

Having read it a couple more times and briefly mulled over the potential of employing a French student, my rather cautious nature kicked in and I quickly dismissed the whole idea.

A few days later, a colleague and I were reviewing a recent meeting with our online marketing consultants.  We had been told in no uncertain terms that we needed to undertake a major piece of analysis before we could begin to implement a truly effective campaign. Of course, this analysis called for the one thing we’re in really short supply of right now – our time.  However, as the prospect of late nights and a weekend spent in the office loomed, my thoughts returned to that email.

There were a few raised eyebrows when I put forward the idea at our weekly meeting and I must admit that I was as sceptical as anyone at first. However, having done a bit of research I begun to warm to the idea and a few days after having declared our interest, we arranged a telephone interview with our prospective intern – Ms Chéryl Bourjac.  Chéryl, who is originally from Guadeloupe, was in her second year at the ISC Business School in Paris and needed to spend six weeks working for a UK based company as part of her degree.

Although the conversation was brief, I felt thoroughly reassured by her enthusiasm and agreed there and then to offer a six week internship at Phoenix.

Chéryl has now been with us for two weeks and her assistance to all parts of the business has been invaluable.  She has already completed the first stage of the marketing analysis and has impressed us all with her strong work ethic and attention to detail.  At the same time, her English is improving quickly and I’m sure that she is learning a lot from working in a company like Phoenix.

Overall, I’m delighted that we agreed to the internship and I would certainly have no hesitation in doing so again.  I think that the scepticism we have for such placements probably stems from the concept of work experience which here in the UK has always been associated with surly school children showing little or no interest in the job.  In Europe, “Internships” are viewed as a key part of many College courses and provide a valuable experience for both parties – which is exactly how we both feel now.   If your company gets a similar opportunity, do please try it – if it’s anything like our experience, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how it works out.

Tags: Business, Education, Employment, Intern, Job Search, London, Paris, Work experience

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Phoenix News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.