internship in Europe possible?

[pawre]

This must be a daft question. This is for my DD next year. But are internships in Europe no longer possible for UK citizens (argh Brexit :(

And has anyone done paid internships? I mean they seem expensive! Are they worth it??

Thanks..

Is this whilst at university? Or gap
year? I think Brexit has made it more difficult due to visas being required.

It’s still possible for UK passport holders to receive an internship offer from a company in the EU, but the visa process is extremely time consuming and expensive (at the university I used to work at, some students paid in excess of £1500 for visa related documents/appointments).

is this for a university student doing an industrial placement?

A friend's son last autumn did a paid internship in Columbia - it was a rip off, poor placement and no pastoral care when he was there.

Brexit as you say has made the whole visa thing a nightmare. Our unwillingness to sign up to the Youth Mobility Scheme is such a barrier to our DC benefiting from European opportunities and firms here benefiting from EU young people coming to the UK.

We looked into it for DD who is currently on an au pair visa in Marseille - no longer living with the same family. She could have got a visa for a volunteering placement but would have required a 'contract' etc. So she took an au pair placement then volunteers with the charity around her child care hours. Work well except the au pair family treated her poorly like a cheap nanny.

This is for an university student. Thanks for your comments.

@pawre
At university, a year abroad is part of the course and students have advice from the university’s dedicated staff. Is this just for the holidays? If it’s a short internship, she won’t get advice so it’s a case of trawling through the possibilities and getting a visa. What about work experience here? Internships are usually in 2nd year summer vacation but work experience or volunteering is any time!

Probably helpful to say which country you are thinking of, as different countries have different rules. DS did an internship in France with a company involved in providing English teaching services to schools. His job was a mixture of office work and going into schools doing English teaching. He needed an internship visa as the Brexit transitional period had already ended before he went out. A slight caveat to this is that DS was still able to benefit from the tail end of Erasmus. I believe his was the last last year group to benefit from Erasmus. I think it applied because the UK had not yet left the EU at the point when DS started his degree. The other aspect that may be relevant is that the teaching aspect required English native speakers. This is relevant because my understanding is that in order for a company to get permission to employ a non-EU national in France, it generally needs to show that it has advertised the job with the French employment service and been unable to find an EU citizen to fill the post. I don't know whether it's the same rule for internships, but I can see that the requirement would be more likely to be met if the post requires English native speakers.

The British Council is still sending English language teaching assistants to EU countries.

From everything I've read, trying to get a visa for Spain appears to be much harder than for France. I know someone who had to start his teaching assistant job at least a month late due to visa issues. From what I've read, I think I'd regard trying to get a work visa for Spain (if not for an assistantship via the British Council) as a bit of a lost cause.

Re TizerorFizz's comment about getting advice from university staff, I would say (from a mix of my own DCs' experience and other people's social media posts) that many university staff involved in year abroad have not yet got to grips with the impact of Brexit.

@Boosterquery
I think it varies from university to university. A top MFL university probsbly does know the time of day. However they also have strong links with EU and other universities and work/internships are not necessarily the only avenue for students. Typically students have always had to be proactive in finding work/internships. The universities do not line them up. Where MFL study is tied far more closely to work, the ties with overseas universities might not be as developed because it wasn’t seen as necessary.

I have certainly read other posts, and heard students say, that their Year Abroad talks have given lots of detail. However it’s difficult to be happy about the Brexit ^^situation or funding. Turing is another disaster!

This is why my daughter has decided she will apply for a pure Business degree, not a joint Business and Spanish degree. My niece had a NIGHTMARE last summer sorting out Spanish uni place, visa and accommodation. Nottingham uni were woeful too