Before recently graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in interior design from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, Meriem Aiouna participated in an internship with the Swedish chain Ikea.
She learned how the furniture store showcases items that need to be highly promoted on their “hot wall,” which is the first one customers see. Aiouna, an Algerian national, says the marketing aspect of the internship also allowed her to understand the importance of teamwork and communication.
“Interning in that company gave me a pre-taste of how that company functions and how it thinks to design interior spaces,” says Aiouna.
Internship opportunities like the one Aiouna took part in are offered at many Arab region universities and allow students to gain practical experience in their respective field. Many schools offer internships as part of their core curriculum, such as VCUQatar’s interior design program, which requires students to complete a 120-hour internship, typically in their senior year.
Internship network InternsME.com CEO Jean-Michel Gauthier said in an email that the benefits of an internship for Arab international students include gaining practical and on-the-ground work experience and the ability to “apply theoretical knowledge to a real world environment.” He said students can build contacts, develop their network and enhance their CV with related internships, projects and business references.
Gauthier said InternsME.com, based in the United Arab Emirates, provides more than 40,000 Middle East and North Africa-based enrollees with searchable internships, traineeships, and part-time and full-time jobs for grads at more than 500 regional employers.
“As a bottom line, the data shows students who’ve successfully completed one or more internships prior to graduating are more than twice as likely to secure their first full-time job within six months. It’s a major employability booster,” said Gauthier, whose company partners with more than 40 universities in the UAE like the American University of Sharjah, American University in Dubai, Hult International Business School Dubai, Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and more.
During her sophomore year at VCUQatar, Aiouna also completed a one-week internship at the Art Dubai Fair in the UAE that she heard about through friends. She interned at the dXb Store, a nonprofit retail space that showcases the work of UAE-based artists and designers.
“These artists were from different places of the world: Japan, Iraq, UAE, India and so forth,” says Aiouna. “This internship mainly allowed me to interact with artists from all over the world.”
At the American University in Cairo, the office of Career Advising and Placement Services coordinates an internship program. Internships vary in duration and can be part time, full time, paid, unpaid or for credit. For example, engineering, computer science, and journalism and mass communication majors receive academic credit for related eight-week internships, according to AUC’s website.
Noman Ahmed Ashraf, a Pakistani-Yemeni student at AUC, says he applied to several internships that he found on the school’s website and was accepted by AIESEC, an international student-run organization. In his internship, Ashraf, a political science major, helped with a local project that teaches orphans basic English language and math skills.
“My experience made me more confident and aware of my skills. It also taught me for the first time how to manage a lot of people throughout a whole day of activities, engagement and learning,” says Ashraf. “As I built my confidence and learned how to handle a tough situation, I do believe this will help me as a future lawyer or maybe even a diplomat.”
Work-study programs are another option, mainly at American-style universities. AUC’s program allows sophomores, juniors and seniors the opportunity to participate in paid, on-campus work experiences for eight to 10 hours a week. Yemeni AUC student Osamah Alshoabi, who is pursuing his Bachelor of Business Administration in management of information and communication technology, says the school’s career center regularly notifies students of the latest openings and vacancies.
One of Alshoabi’s work-study positions is in the business school’s office of student support, where he is being trained as a mentor for incoming freshmen and current undergrad students. Another paid position is at the school’s rare books and special collections library, where he is participating in a project called “University on the Square,” which documents eyewitness accounts of the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath. He is also an unpaid volunteer as an international peer leader for the international students and study abroad office.
“It’s a good chance to help me acquire the skills that will help me in the future after I graduate,” says Alshoabi, who has long contemplated a career in community and youth development but has lately considered information technology. “A simple internship in technology might also help me make up my mind.”
As a fresh graduate of VCUQatar, Aiouna is currently seeking out interior design opportunities in Doha. She says she needs some additional work experience to understand how the business world works.
“So, I’ll work with a company first,” says Aiouna. “And if in the future I will be lucky enough to start my own business, that would be great.”
