Internship in Research Institute for Managing Sustainability (RIMAS). Vienna- Austria. 2013

I cannot believe my internship is over! Three months have passed so quickly. It feels like all of it was just a dream, but all my gained knowledges and experience prove that the internship was real.

Actually, it was not my first internship. I once used the “Erasmus” - programme to go to Krakow, Poland. I had a great time there and gained a lot of experience, which already influenced my career. But Polish people are too similar to Lithuanians, therefore I was strongly motivated to gain more knowledge and to expand my network in a more intercultural and different enviroment.

I was so dissapointed when the international programme manager from my university told me that it is not possible to participate in an “Erasmus” - programme again. But the manager informed me about the possibility to participate in the “Partners 4 Value“ - programme. 

Thank you very much for this programme and for the opportunity to experience an internship - not once but twice until now!

Why did I choose Research Institute for Managing Sustainability?

Fist of all, the “Research Institute for Managing Sustainability“ at the “Vienna University of Economics and Business” is an independent university institute specializing on research for Sustainable Development and Corporate Sustainability. RIMAS is committed to tackling the societal, political and economic challenges which arise in the context of sustainable development with interdisciplinary approaches in research, education and consulting.

I was interested in having the internship with RIMAS at the “Vienna University of Economics and Business” mainly because it primary focuses on the areas of the Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility. These thematic areas are closely related to my Master paper. I also had the opportunity to perform my internship in a working environment which was very interesting and beneficial in terms of my study objectives and career prospects.

I was expecting, that the internship with RIMAS will be beneficial in terms of getting thematic knowledge, multicultural working experience, real-work experience that will enable me to enhance my research skills and projects development skills.

This internship definitely served me well in carrying out a preparatory research for my master paper. Moreover, it has already influenced my career and my personal life.

My daily life in RIMAS

At my internship I had to work 5 days per week and 8 hours per day. But to be honest, every employee of RIMAS had to organize its work and working hours by itself. It was not mandatory to come at 9 a.m. and to leave at 5 p.m. The most important thing was to do your task until shortly before the deadline. Moreover you could also work from home. But as I wanted to get to know RIMAS and their daily life better, I went there every day. I had my own room and my own desk, so I could seriously concentrate on my tasks.

At first I was introduced to the activities, structures and functions of the Institute. I had to help RIMAS-team at different tasks. Mainly I had to do desktop researches related to several projects, supporting the team in preparing conferences and workshops. The most interesting and practical task was to help the team at the proposal submissions for the European Commission. 

Another part of my duties was to investigate and analyse some data.

In the beginning it was quite difficult to work alone, without any presence of my boss or other co-workers. I had to learn to organize my work-time, in order to finish my tasks on time. Later on I adopted and improved my organizing and my planning. Moreover I substantially improved my searching and my computer and English language skills.

 I have to say that it was interesting to work there not just because of the institutes working area and approach, but also because of the co-workers. The people working in RIMAS were very nice, helpful, creative, intelligent and friendly. Most of the RIMAS workers were not from Austria. There were employees from Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovak and so on. For this reason I had the possibility to learn not just Austrian’s but also other languages and culture habits.

I was working in an intercultural environment.

About leisure time and everything when the working hours were off...

My internship period was from February until May. I saw the city in two different forms: in the winter and in the wonderful spring. Vienna is an amazing city. I will always remember it as very international, cultural, beautiful, with plenty of palaces; where everything (including public transportation) is perfectly organized. Viennese people are very polite, friendly and helpful. Every time I opened my map on the street, they asked me if I need help. As I don’t speak German at all I was surprised that almost everybody responded in English at a very high level.

It was difficult to find accommodation for 3 months. For the first month (February) I got a room in a dormitory. I had so much fun there; I met a lot of nice people from all over the world. We organized trips and we explored Vienna together. 

It was expected of me to stay in the dormitory for the whole stay, for three months. Unfortunately, I had to leave, because all the rooms were booked for the month of March and April. I tried to find another dormitory to live in, but the answer was always the same – everything was booked. I started to search for a cheap flat to rent. It was a really difficult period for me, because nobody was interested in renting a flat or a room for such a short time. This was a big problem I did not want to have.

Fortunately after some searching I found a very nice flat with a very social flat mate. The owners of the flat have five daughters, so they treated me like the 6^th daughter. They involved me very quickly in their family life: every Sunday we had a family-dinner with a nice atmosphere and original Viennese food.  

I was really happy to have a lot of friends and a true Viennese family.

                I was never bored. There are a lot of interesting places to see in Vienna: museums, palaces, churches, attractions, wonderful parks and other places. I also visited in Austria beautiful places like the mountains or the small old villages that had grape plantations. 

Besides all mentioned things, Vienna has a very good geographical position, so it is not expensive to visit other countries in the neighborhood.

In conclusion I really loved my stay in Vienna and my statement would be: if you want to change your life in three months, you have to go for it – for the internship!

My internship at The Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law

Since I have entered Vilnius University I knew that I want to explore as many opportunities and to see as much as possible. This is why I did not miss a chance to go for a study abroad and afterwards to do my internship in the foreign country. After everything I went through I can say that these were the best decisions I could possibly make and I strongly encourage everybody to do the same. This is a lifetime opportunity to broaden your cultural knowledge and experience what it is like to work in other EU countries.



The Organization

I was an intern at The Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law. The HiiL is a not for profit organization, which is located in the Hague, the Netherlands. Its main activities are related to the law innovation and it operates all over the world. As the organization puts it: "HiiL is passionate about making justice work. The core of our work is to improve rule-making and conflict resolution processes. In today’s challenging environment that is impossible without innovation. We support clients and other stakeholders doing this together, across borders and based on the best available knowledge."

The organization is rather small, its core team is comprised of 19 members. However, organization constantly employs interns and student assistants, which makes the environment of the organization very dynamic. Besides that, the team of the HiiL is very international. During my internship I met people from all around the world.

My activities at the HiiL

I was an intern at the External Relations department of the HiiL. I was supporting the implementation of the organisation’s overall fundraising and external relations strategies, searching, tracking and reacting on new funding and business opportunities, approaching potential clients, maintaining CRM system, preparing the proposals for potential customers and helping with various administrative tasks.

During these 3 months I gained a lot of confidence in business situations. I learned a great deal of new skills and have grown as a young professional. I had a lot of support from the rest of the team in the HiiL, which made my learning progress even more effective.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is one of the best countries to do your internship. It is very international, therefore almost everyone speaks fluent English. Besides that, almost all of the major companies of the world has its headquarters in the Netherlands. Internships in this country most of the times are paid (300-400 eur per month). However, it is important to take in account that the life expenditures in the Netherlands are rather high (around 1000 eur per month). 

Country is located in a very convenient geographical position. All the main western Europe countries are located near by, therefore it is a great chance to explore all of them.

All in all, this was a life time opportunity for me and I would strongly recommend to everyone to choose the Netherlands as a place for the internship as it is a country, which provides a lot of opportunities. 

Vaiva Knašytė

Raimonda Kundrotaitė. The Scandinavian internship!

I was used to study Law and Management in the Mykolas romeris University and have never imagine how much it could help me to meet the world. Usually, I find transnational cooperation as one of the most preferable thing for my future! That is absolutely brilliant to remember my internship! It looks that I could never stop to talk about my colorful moments in Stockholm.

At the beginning I have to make some short introduction about my internship. Actually, it looks like I did it for about one million times, because a lot of people were so curious about what I was doing in Stockholm, how I found it what was the most exciting. I had my internship in the managing authority of European Social Fund in Sweden. The internship and its activities were colored with the brightest colors!  It was perfectly good: everything was organized according to the agreed internship plan and it included a lot of challenging activities. Otherwise the time was not overcrowded and I had some possibilities to explore the Swedish culture as well.

The objectives and activities of the internship were the following:

- Representation of Swedish ESF Council and the Swedish Operational Programme for the ESF;

- Introduction of activities in employment, social and education policies with a special focus on the links to the EU Baltic Sea Strategy;

- Representation of relevant to EU Baltic Sea Strategy ministries (Employment Ministry, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Education) in Sweden;

- Representation of central governmental agencies represented in the Baltic Sea Network-ESF (Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth; International Program Office; Swedish Board for Youth Affairs; Public Employment Office; The Swedish Social Insurance Agency; SALAR, The Swedish Association for Local and Regional Authorities).

Despite the activities described above, I am glad by having an opportunity to visit Belgium, Poland. I visited a lot of different conferences and events in Stockholm. Also, I appreciated an opportunity to participate in the event that was organized in the second biggest city in Sweden, Gothenburg. I still remember the sun in that harbor city... It was shy and at the same time very inspiring to seek for the specialties of all the surroundings.

In Belgium, I took part in the international European conference for the representatives from different EU countries; the discussion was about gender mainstreaming. I had an opportunity not even to understand new theoretical ideas but to absorb the working skills and methods of the interested persons as well.

In Poland, I had an opportunity to be a co-facilitator. I was not the first time for me, I did it before as well, but the time in Poland was quite different. First of all, it met a lot of project promoters. I was extremely nice to imagine their ideas and try to help to develop them. I  did not consider for how far away these people are able to go with these ideas, but I strongly believe that as soon as they are encouraged by these ideas, it has to live inside of them and to play in a different way each day... Needless to say, I met about a million of fascinating people there! ...

.. And I still feel that the internship gave me a lot.

 
You cannot recognize it from the beginning or even during it.

The fruits have to be ripening just after they well seen.

I guess that the strength of mine during the internship was that I had inside of me the principle of “you are responsible what happens in your life and great occasions came just when you are ready”. At the moment I able to say for about one million time that I was lucky to choose the internship and to be picked by it as well.

Vytas Neviera. Internship at International Organization for Migration (IOM) RO Vienna, Austria.

Vytas Neviera. International Organization for Migration (IOM), Vienna, Austria.

Firstly, I'd like to thank "Partners 4 Value Program" for the chance to live my dream and to learn things I could only dream about before. Secondly, I want to express my gratitude to the host organization for taking me in and giving the opportunity to learn and grow, both professionally and as an individual.

Haruki Murakami once wrote:

"Team sports aren't my thing. I find it easier to pick something up if I can do it at my own speed. And you don't need a partner to go running, you don't need a particular place, like in tennis, just a pair of trainers."

I cannot say that I have the same feelings for team sports as he does, as I love team sports, but I must agree about how important it is to have the right shoes for doing your thing at your own speed. And thanks to "Partners 4 Value Program" I got a chance to be a part of fun, interesting, smart, and highly-skilled team of professionals at International Organization for Migration Regional Office Vienna which offered me perfect running shoes for doing things on my own speed - I was doing an internship as an assistant to LHD (Labour Migration and Human Development) unit and was learning as much as I can and gaining many valuable experiences over the period of six months. 

About Organization

International Organization for Migrations is a non-profit intergovernmental organization was established in 1951. It is organization which is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society and assists migrants and promote adequate responses to migration issues, bearing in mind the well-being of migrants and the interests of States and their societies. Nowadays it has 149 Member states and 100 nations have an observer status, and it works in more than 470 field locations all over thw world.

I myself did my professional internship at IOM Regional Office Vienna, which is one of the eight IOM Regional Offices worldwide, was founded only in 2011. This office is tasked with formulating regional strategies and plans of action, as well as providing programmatic and administrative support to the 20 countries within the region of South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Regional Office employs technical experts in four fields of migration management: Migration and Development, Facilitating Migration, Regulating Migration and Forced Migration. The Regional Office staff also deals with various cross cutting issues and puts this technical knowledge at the disposal of the country offices in support of their local activities and thereby also to the governments of the countries in the region.

Daily work

Of course, the most important part of the internship was working and learning. Gladly, I can state that the work I was doing was interesting and challenging most of the time. And it was never boring as tasks replaced one another, and sometimes even piled up as one task was of higher priority than the other, which meant that the work was dynamic. It required all my attention and efforts, creativity and knowledge. Also, it required me to be aware of the possible challenges, which were outlined and helped to be overcome by my great supervisors and colleagues, who shared their knowledge with me more than willingly and always encouraged to ask. As one of them once put it - ask and you shall be answered. :) 

The work I was doing comprised many different tasks - from gathering information and then writing analysis on projects related to youth unemployment, employability, migration, its management and importance to local labor market, raising awareness about human trafficking which were carried out by IOM in the region, and to creating first drafts of cross border cooperation projects on economic development with focus on and importance of tourism sector and human resource management and accumulation and analysis of the information, its preparation for the use in the application for the project. Or writing analysis and paper on remittances and its influence on economies and households of the recipients of the remittances, or processing and analysing statistical data of various trainings carried out by IOM offices in 2011 in the region. And even preparing a newsletter on showcase LHD projects which were carried out by the organization in the year 2012! Great variety of tasks helped me to learn me so much that I hadn't even dreamt about before.

Challenge

The greatest challenge that I faced during the period of my internship was a proper time management. Due to the intensity and dynamics of the work, I had to know how to distribute my time properly. At the beginning it was rather difficult, however, in time I'd learned it and was doing pretty great with it. Nevertheless, there's always room for improvement! Another challenge was the lack of particular knowledge of the field that I've dealing with. But it was solved pretty quickly, once I immersed myself into the work and was trying to absorb the new things to me from the fast everyday flow of information.

Country & City

Austria and Vienna are definitely great places to be and to live! 

At the beginning I was a little afraid that without knowing German, I will suffer from being lost in translation. However, it did not happen. Actually, it was other way around. I started picking up German rather quickly and only because of my intensive work and studies at the same time at home university, I haven't learned German to the extent that I could properly converse. And actually, if you go to Vienna or Austria and don't know German, you shouldn't be afraid - everyone there speak English and are very polite, helpful and understanding. Of course, I should say big thanks to all of my flatmates and their friends who helped me a lot to get around and understand many things, that wouldn't have been so clear otherwise!

Anyways, Austrians and Viennese people are polite and very helpful, they will always help once you'll overcome your own fear of asking for help. 

About the beauty of the country and the city I shouldn't even talk as they're famous the world all over for that. However, I think must mention it too as they definitely deserve that! I haven't gotten much chance to travel around the country, but  those few places I have seen are impeccable - beautiful nature and romantic villages in the mountains, and architectural marvels in the capital city are breathtaking and fascinate all visitors. Vienna itself is a Great city. And I mean it and that's why I wrote "great" with the capital "G". It is not too expensive to live if you have a normal life. Of course, if you like eating out very, it might be costly, but if you cook at home, then it's not such a big deal. Rent is very affordable and if you have the luxury of time to look for a room/apartment, you can get a very good offer for a great price. The transport system there is perfect - it is always on time (seriously, always). The monthly ticket is rather cheap when you think that you get to use four types of transport (metro, trams, buses and local trains) with the same ticket for almost the same price as monthly bus ticket without discount costs in Vilnius. Furthermore, if you like cycling, it's perfect as bicycle road network is very developed and you can get to almost any place in the city. Moreover, the city of Vienna is green. Many parks within the city offer you a refuge from the busy city life. And last, but not least, the city is full of arts - dozens or hundreds of museums and galleries cater to the taste of everyone. If you don't like modern or medieval art, but you're into languages or trams, then you can go to the museums designed to satisfy your particular interests. 

I am definitely happy that I got a chance to live and work there for a while. And I think I should disclose the fact that I fell in love with the city of Vienna already during my time there. I guess it was a perfect match of an interesting work and beautiful place that made me fall in love with the city.

And I can only be thankful to the "Partners 4 Value Program" for giving me the chance to learn, to live and to love. And do all of it at the same time.

I knew what I wanted from the internship. It completely met all my expectations and even surpassed them in some aspects. And the collaboration of the "Partners 4 Value Program" and the IOM let me get what I wanted, what I worked for before and helped me to make further steps towards the dream that I've been striving for. 

Ieva Pratašiūtė. Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP), Sofia- Bulgaria

,,You're simply the best, better than all the rest 
  Better than anyone, anyone I've ever met “

         These lyrics come to my mind when I think about the Partners 4 Value Program. I am very grateful to this program for an opportunity to explore the field of clinical psychology in Bulgaria.

Organization

 Last summer I did an internship at Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP) in the capital of Bulgaria. GIP - Lithuania, being a part of the GIP, inspired me to perform my internship abroad.

Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP) is an international non-profit organisation for the promotion of humane, ethical and effective mental health care worldwide. The Federation Global Initiative on Psychiatry has members in Bulgaria, George, The Nederland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Lithuania as well.

          GIP-Sofia, being a part of the GIP federation, on one hand, tries to improve the life quality of people, afflicted by severe mental illnesses. On the other hand, it tries to decrease the usual risks, related to mental illnesses, such as institutionalisation, isolation, segregation, stigmatisation, marginalisation, profound disability and worsened social functioning.  

GIP has been awarded two prestigious prizes for its efforts: The Human Rights Award from the American Psychiatric Association and the 2000 Geneva Prize for Human Rights in Psychiatry. For more information, visit: http://www.gip-global.org/

A short glimpse of my daily work

During the first part of my internship I worked in the Complex for community- based mental health services (day care centre and sheltered home for persons with severe mental illnesses). In the beginning of my internship the psychologists and social workers helped me to get more familiar with the place, working conditions, tried to expand my knowledge of mental disorders. Soon I started to communicate with the clients of day care centre and people from sheltered home, who could speak English. I participated in various activities they had, such as: art therapy, photography, learning English, cooking clubs or knitting, dance lessons and so on.  They even had a lesson, where people with mental disorders are introduced with the medicine they have to consume. It was really interesting to observe the behaviour and thinking of people with mental disorders and get direct comments from experts of mental health team. If you are active and enthusiastic you can ask your colleagues to let you organise some activities, for instance: to make traditional Lithuanian food during cooking club classes or something unique in other workshops.  

During the second part of my internship I worked in the Informational Centre for Mental Health of GIP- Sofia, based in the next city of Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad). I worked with volunteers in developing HIV/ AIDS and Tuberculosis prevention campaigns. I learned how to design and organise antistigma campaigns.

I also worked in the central administrative office of the organisation as an assistant of the Project manager. I had been involved in developing and reporting projects in the area of mental health and development education, public awareness campaigns.

Challenge

It would be great if I could speak Russian or Bulgarian, because not all patients of day care centre or sheltered home could speak English. That made some difficulties for professional aspect as communication with them was limited. My colleagues spent as much time as possible with translation issues, but certainly I missed some valuable information anyway. Psychiatry is the sphere where you have to put active listening with empathy. So language barrier is an obvious obstacle.  

Bulgaria: living and prices

Bulgaria is a beautiful country, filled to the brim with culture and history. The country is distinguished for its beautiful nature which has charmed everyone, who has ever visited the country. Its territory is not that extensive at all, but being concentrated on such tiny space, natural landmarks are even more fascinating.

 I had a great opportunity to travel all across the country due to my kind co-workers, who invited me to visit their home towns. I really appreciate everything they did for me. I fell in love with the country: its traditions, cuisine and smiling faces.

From financial perspective Bulgaria is a great place because of low living expenses. The prices are more or less the same as in Lithuania. 

Talking about accommodation, my co-workers helped me a lot to get a living place (dormitory). They even took me directly from Sofia airport and made me an introduction evening, where I got all the basic survival information. I didn’t expect such an effortless adaptation process.

Partners 4 value or Erasmus program?

While Partners 4 Value and Erasmus Programs are similar in many ways, there are also some differences of which you should be aware. Firstly, Partners 4 Value Program suggests a reliable and diverse platform, while searching for a perspective internship place in Erasmus program could be frustrating. 

Summary

“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can, there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.” ( Sarah Caldwell).

The internship met all my expectations, because I knew what I was looking for as well as I figured out a lot about organization’s profile and its activities. It was an excellent way to get an inside glimpse of a GIP organization. Each member of GIP helped me grow both professionally and personally by sharing new perspectives, knowledge and friendship.

,,Per aspera ad astra”,

Contact infomation:

pratasiute.ieva@gmail.com