Paid Internship Program
The Paid Internship (P.I.) is Vancouver Internships.ca's signature program.  With the P.I. we offer your students paid internships for periods of 6, 12, and 18 months.  All are paid at either minimum wage or a stipend rate, and all are with carefully vetted Vancouver-area firms.

Highlights

• Paid at a stipend rate or at minimum wage
• Minimum duration of 6 months
• Available in office administration, bookkeeping, information technology, and hotels
• Full visa support by V.I.
• Eight Week placement process
• All internships closely monitored

Internships

Internships are offered in 4 industries and are described below:
Office administration: students intern with a Canadian company in any field.  They perform basic administrative assistance including reception duties, filing, customer service and basic correspondence.  They will work as part of a team of at least 5 staff members.  During this internship, the student will learn about North American working habits, and professional English for customer service. 
Bookkeeping: in this internship, students will work typically with manufacturing firms as part of their bookkeeping and accounting team.  They will assist with day to day accounting, monthlies, quarterlies, and yearlies.  During this internship, the student will learn finance and accounting related vocabulary, they will gain an intimate knowledge of North American financial accounting, and working habits.
Information Technology:  IT is a broad field, we offer internships in most corners of that field, including: network administration, software engineering, IT security, telecom, web applications development, web 3.0 design, and quality assurance.  Internship duties vary by specific field, but generally include hands on work with a development team of 3-5 people.  During these internships, students will gain important industry contacts, will improve their industry specific vocabulary, and will have access to some of the best working practices around.
Hotels: These internships are outside of Metro Vancouver.  They are open to students with significant experience or education in hotel management.  Your students will have the opportunity to work in at least three different departments of a hotel, operate in different functions and gain exposure to each aspect of their field.  Interns will gain exposure to standard hotel policies and procedures, job-related vocabulary and industry contacts.

Placement Process

Visas

The placement process takes 8 weeks to complete.  This process includes the following:

• ‘The Internship Plan’
• Resume preparation
• Interview training
• Arrangement of interviews
• Sitting in through interviews (where possible)

Your students can expect to have their interviews in the 4th, 5th, and 6th weeks of the placement process.  If your student fails their first interview, we will arrange a second, and then a third.  If they fail three interviews, we will meet with you to discuss their chances of success.

All students participating in this program will require a work permit.  In order to qualify for this work permit, the student must be enrolled in full-time studies with you for at least 6 months.  By doing so, your student will qualify for a Co-Op Work Permit (http://www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/study/work-coop.asp).

Some exceptions to the work permit rules are made for students from  Europe, Japan, and Chile, who qualify for special ‘Internship’ visas that allow them to work without first undertaking a period of Canadian studies.

V.I. provides you with full visa support, and we can guide you, your marketing staff, and your agents through the application process for your students’ work permits.