Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Internship Programme of German Business for Ukraine (Stipendienprogramm der Deutschen Wirtschaft für die Ukraine)

Hi, my name is Asalle and I participated in Internship Programme of German Business for Ukraine. First of all, I would like to answer some common questions, detailed answer for them you can find in the "Contacts" section below.


What is the Internship Programme of German Business for Ukraine?

In short, it's the joint effort of German government and Ukrainian non-profits to bring Ukraine and Germany together. They give you a scholarship and an opportunity to have an internship in one of the German well-known company and you share your Ukrainian culture in Germany and you positive experience in Ukraine. Why would they do that? Because, we are a huge market they would like to work closer with. You know Bosch, METRO, SAP, they have departments in Ukraine as well and they participate in this programme as host companies.

Who can participate?

Students, that have finished at least 2 years of their study and young graduates, all preferably under 30. Good command of English, German or both is required, but no language certificate is obligatory.

What is expecting me in Germany?

You will do a 3 to 5 month internship in one of the coolest German companies, of course in Germany. You will dive into German culture and everyday life and will have a unique opportunity to work together with a "global player", as I did, see below.

How did you apply?
Just go to the http://stipendienprogramm-ukraine.de/ and on the front page you will see a huge button "Please apply here" or "Hier geht es zur Bewerbung" depending on the language you're viewing the page in.


You can additionally check your area of study and industry with a table in the beginning. For example, I study software engineering, my area of study is IT and my industry is called "Informatics/Mathematics". Sometimes you can choose between several industries, but choose wisely, if you study insurance you don't want to go repair a plane.
Then create 2 pdf documents: one should contain your CV and motivational letter and the second one -- your transcript of records (required), its translation into English or German(required) and another certificates/awards/references/diplomas (optional)

Then choose the day and place for interview, go to the special recruiting website and upload your 2 files. Wait for the response.

How was the preparation period and applying for visa?
If you're cool, you're on the shortlist and some company picked you out, the program coordinators will contact you and tell you to prepare for visa application. The program takes care of everything and you will apply together with other participants and the coordinators in Kyiv. You won't need anything you don't have: just copies of your ids, your insurance and the contract that you will get from the company via mail. You will also need to fill out some fancy forms and sort the documents in a special order XD Oh this bureaucracy. All can I say, it was not stressful at all, on the contrary -- it was fun.

What did the University say about your absence?
It's a complicated question. In general, Universities are not happy that you break their old kinky workflow, and the first thing I heard from my faculty office is to take an academical vacation. You know, that one, for a year. I disagreed and asked people: it turned out that my internship is academical mobility and I can be absent for 3 months without a problem, but the biggest requirement was to take exams in time. I would come back after the exams had finished, so I decided to take them before semester. It worked, everybody's happy.

What can you say about your company?
I had an internship in Bosch Rexroth. It's a big company that does a lot of things, and developing industrial controllers is among them.

It's a part a bigger Bosch Group and it's motto is "The drive and control company".

How was your internship?
Well, it was a great chance. I met a lot of great people and professionals, made a few friends around the globe, increased my proficiency in German language rather drastically and got a recommendation letter with a Bosch logo on it. Not to mention all the traveling, having fun and a wonderful old town I lived in for the whole three months!


What can you say in the end?
If you hesitate -- don't, just try. I am an average student with a slight English proficiency and I did it. So can you, I am sure.

If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comment section below, I will try to add new answers in the post. Good luck!



Contacts:
  1. http://stipendienprogramm-ukraine.de/
  2. www.ost-ausschuss.de/ua
  3. https://www.facebook.com/UAinternship
  4. https://vk.com/uainternship
  5. https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/30663.html
  6. http://eo-ucci.org.ua/en/the-scholarship-program-of-the-german-economy/the-scholarship-program-of-the-german-economy

1 comment:

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