Work abroad

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Work abroad is the term used for when a student interns, volunteers, or teachers in a foreign country through a program. Students gain work experience while being immersed in a foreign work environment, though the position may be paid or unpaid. Dependent upon the program, a student working abroad may live in a dormitory or apartment with other students or with a "host family", a group of people who live in that country and agree to provide student lodging.

While work abroad programs are often grouped with study abroad programs, in the past decade, there has been a distinction between the two, particularly in the benefits of each.

[edit] History

The oldest program listed in the Institution of International Education's (IIE) education abroad guides is one for teaching abroad, Princeton-in-Asia, founded in 1898. Reciprocal work-exchange programs were founded after World War II in hopes of fostering peace, including the Fulbright scholarship and teaching programs (1946) along with the International Association of Students in Economic and Business Management (AIESEC) and the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE) (both in 1948) and CDS (1949) internship exchange programs. In the 1960s, the Peace Corps, BUNAC, and the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) were created. There has been a steady upward trend of students going abroad. [1]

[edit] Work Abroad versus Study Abroad

Obviously, there are many similarities between working and studying abroad, particularly in the benefits: language immersion, wanderlust, and learning about the world around them. However, students in certain disciplines, such as engineering and architecture, in which practical, hands-on experience can add to the academic structure of a study abroad program.

Statistics on working abroad is not well documented. This is most likely because students are enrolled in their own university when participating in a study exchange program, and many universities do not host work abroad programs.