This page describes how to apply for our year-round offers. Applications are open throughout the year, and new internships are announced on a continuous basis on the international IAESTE Exchange Platform.

Apart from the year-round procedure, there also is the annual application procedure. The difference between the year-round application procedure and the annual procedure is explained here.

Overview

Browse internships

Find an internship that interests you on the international IAESTE Exchange Platform. Note that you can apply for at most one internship at a time, unless the periods don’t overlap.

Apply

Apply by sending an email to belgium@iaeste.org, mentioning the reference number of the internship that interest you. If you’re the first to apply, we’ll assign the internship to you on the Exchange Platform. Start gathering all required documents in the meantime.

Nomination

Complete your nomination on the exchange platform. We’ll check its completeness before sending it to the receiving country and employer.

Acceptance

The employer evaluates your application. If you’re accepted, the internship is officially confirmed and you can start arranging the final practicalities.

How to apply

Applying for a year-round offer is very simple:

Create an account on the Exchange Platform.
Browse through the available internships and select the one that interests you the most. If you want to get more information on a particular internship, contact the local committee of your university.
Send an email to belgium@iaeste.org to announce your interest in this offer. Mention the reference number (e.g. BE-2018-1234) in the subject of the email. Include your CV, motivation letter for this internship and desired period of stay. Make sure the period of stay matches the requested period of the internship offer.
Gather the nomination documents while you wait for us to assign you to this offer. You can find the list of required documents below. It might take a day (maybe two if it’s a very busy period of the year) before that happens, and with these offers it’s best to be as quick as possible with completing your nomination!
Complete your nomination as soon as you are assigned to the offer on the Exchange Platform, and submit it. Make sure the documents are in the correct order (see below to know what that is)! We will check its completeness before sending it abroad.
Pay the administrative fee and send us a proof of payment. See below for more details.
We will send the nomination abroad after checking it and after receiving your proof of payment.

The nomination deadline mentioned on the platform is the deadline for IAESTE Belgium to send your nomination to the other IAESTE country. Please keep in mind that between you uploading your documents and this deadline, we still needs time to check your documents and request corrections if necessary. Therefore, upload your documents as soon as possible, at least a couple of business days before the deadline (take into account weekends and holidays)!

Important remarks

When applying for an internship, please take into account the following info:

Read our cancellation policy and administrative fee.
Read about the countries that you cannot go to for an internship on the general application page.
Do NOT contact the employer yourself until you are accepted for the internship position by the employer. If you have any questions about the internship, contact the local committee.
The period mentioned in the offer is strict, so make sure you are available during the weeks that you apply for.
Some countries require that you are enrolled at your home university for the entire period of stay (for 2018: see this list under “Certificate of enrolment > if required, valid for”). Keep this in mind if you are in your last year and if you’re applying for an internship that extends to the next academic year, because you might not be eligible for the internship. When in doubt, contact the local committee at your university.

Nomination documents

Complete your nomination on the Exchange Platform by entering all relevant information in your profile and uploading the required documents. These documents should be uploaded as one PDF and in the same order as they are mentioned below:

Offer form.
Student Nominated Form:
You’ll be able to download this after you’ve completed the other info in your nomination and clicked the “Print Documents” button. Make sure all previous information is complete and correct!
Motivation Letter:
Adapt the motivation letter you used for your application so that it now addresses the company instead of IAESTE Belgium. The one page limit no longer holds, but we recommend a concise motivation letter.
Curriculum Vitae:
Adapt your CV so that it is tailored towards the internship you applied for. The one page limit no longer holds, but we recommend a concise CV.
Transcript of Records:
Of all years and in English.
Language Certificate:
More info below.
Certificate of Enrolment:
A scan or PDF of your certificate of enrolment, which proves you are a student.
Letter of Recommendation (if required):
Some countries require that a professor or previous employer writes a recommendation letter for you, and for some countries it is not required but highly recommended. More info below.
Scan of your passport:
A scan of your eID is fine if you don’t have a passport yet, or if a passport is not required to get into the country of your internship.
Photo of yourself:
Include a nice and professional-looking picture of yourself.
Any additional documents.

Make sure all the documents are of sufficient quality, especially if you make any scans of documents. All documents should be typed, handwritten documents will not be accepted. For architecture students, the portfolio can be uploaded separately.

Once your nomination is completed, our national secretary and/or exchange administrator(s) will check its completeness before sending it to the employer. Keep an eye on the Exchange Platform in case any modifications are requested!

Language certificate

You can download this document here.
The language certificate proves that you are capable of speaking and writing in English. Download the document, complete it and make sure it is signed. The person that signs it can be a professor that teaches/taught you a university course in English, an English teacher from high school, a previous employer if your work at that company was done in English, …, or in short: anyone who can “officially” vouch for your English skills in a professional or academic context. If you have supplementary language certificates, you can also include those.

Letter of Recommendation

For some internships, a recommendation letter is either required or highly recommended. You can get such a letter from a professor, a previous employer, or anyone else that can comment on your professional skills and attitude. The letter should explain how the person that’s writing it knows you and on why he/she thinks you would do a good job.

A list of countries where a recommendation letter is required or recommended can be found here under “Letter of recommendation required” (exchange season 2018).

Administrative fee

Unfortunately an IAESTE internship is not free: we are a non-profit organization, but our operation still costs money. However, we believe the cost is quite small compared to the advantages you gain by doing an IAESTE internship.

The administrative fee is €125, or €60 if you are a scholarship student. We also ask for a warranty of €50 on top of this, which is reimbursed after your internship if you write a small text about your IAESTE experience. The amount of €175 (€110 for scholarship students) should be transferred by the deadline communicated to you by email to the following bank account:

Name: IAESTE Belgium
IBAN: BE28 7330 0289 9320
BIC: KREDBEBB
Message: IAESTEfee-YourLastName–YourFirstName.

Also send us a proof of payment via email once you paid it, e.g. a screenshot of your banking app after the payment has been confirmed. If you are a scholarship student, also send an official proof of your scholarship status.

We can only send your nomination abroad after we’ve received your proof of payment and scholarship status (if applicable).

Note: The proof of payment does not need to be uploaded on the Exchange Platform. Instead, send it in an email to belgium@iaeste.org.

Cancellation policy

After accepting your internship and paying the fee, you are bound to completing the internship. Cancelling now will result in losing the fee and warranty.

Only under the following circumstances, and with approval by IAESTE Belgium, the fee will be paid back:

The student is not accepted by the employer.
The employer cancels the internship.
The employer changes the conditions of the internship (e.g. duration, topic, …), rendering the nominee unable to carry it out.
Exams to redo during summer, if they concern a second semester subject and if you can prove you made a sufficient effort to change the dates of your exam and/or internship to prevent overlap.
Serious illness or similar grave unforeseeable circumstances.

Waiting for acceptance

After your nomination is sent to the employer, the waiting for acceptance begins… It can take a while before an employer accepts you as an intern. Some countries/employers are fast to respond, others like to postpone. It is not unusual to get acceptance in May or even in June, a couple of weeks before the internship starts. Unfortunately, internships do get cancelled sometimes (not often) as well (e.g. the company doesn’t have the fund anymore, the project got cancelled, …).

IMPORTANT: you are not allowed to contact the employer before you get confirmation of your acceptance. Doing so will result in losing the internship position. Some companies however will contact you themselves and ask for a Skype interview.

Once the employer has confirmed your internship position, you can book you flights and really start getting excited! There are only three things left to do now:

Sign the internship acceptance form and submit that on the Exchange Platform. This form contains the final information on your internship (duration, wage…) and is a contract between you and the employer.
Arrange your insurance, visa, and other official documents.
If you want to get your internship acknowledged for credits (depending on the regulations of your university/faculty), you should also start arranging that. More info on your university or faculty website.