My internship in Manchester was a great experience, by gaining real-world knowledge in the finance industry prior to my graduation, and also being able to undertake activities I never thought were possible.

I would absolutely recommend undertaking an internship if you were considering it.

I didn’t exactly know what to expect when I applied to intern in Tokyo for 2 months. Japan was somewhere I’d never visited, or never imagined myself working. After living here, I can say it’s my favourite country I’ve visited!

I did the CRCC Asia internship at the end of my degree. It was a great opportunity to add a point of difference to my CV, and set me apart from other applicants for future jobs. It was also an amazing way to spend an extended amount of time in a fantastic country.

I interned in an international scientific communications company. Initially, I was intimidated with this pairing as I am usually more comfortable in pop/ youth culture, fashion etc. After my interview with the company I knew it would be an enjoyable place to work, the people were lovely and the work sector would extend my skill set. I can honestly say I’m thankful to have been placed here. It’s been eye opening and beneficial for me to work in a big company that I never would have thought I would enjoy as much as I have.

Before catching my flight to Tokyo I had no idea what I was going to go through. I was worried about being in a completely different country all by myself, having to do a job I knew nothing about. It turned out that my worries were useless. From the day I arrived, I never felt lonely. I immediately met the other interns (coming from different parts of the world) and our friendly and young supervisor. We organized interesting visits, delicious lunches, dinners, and events; we shared our experiences, personal stories and feelings.

Even if just for one month, I feel like I have grown so much after this experience. I felt emotions I didn’t know I could feel, ate great food, made new friends and explored a completely new culture. Thanks to the internship I have more clear in mind what field I would like to work in in the future and finding a job doesn’t scare me anymore.

I highly recommend this experience to anyone: for professional, but mostly, for personal growth. Going back, I would with no hesitation make this choice again. Ganbare!

A fantastic opportunity to fully immerse yourself in a new environment, culture and way of life.

Great opportunity to gain experience in Asia and China, The internship is what you make of it, the more effort and enthusiasm you put, the more you will gain back. Use your time to the maximum, as 2 months fly and China is a huge country. If you’re not happy with your host company, make sure you keep good communication with CRCC.

Initially, I applied to CRCC as I wanted to improve my employability. Graduate jobs in the UK can be so competitive and so I was looking to gain a unique experience abroad that would help my CV stand out amongst the rest; as demonstrating global networks is particularly important in today’s globalised world. I thought that an internship would be a really good opportunity to get a flavour for the media industry, as well as gain valuable hands-on experience, better preparing me for what to expect for media-related roles back in London. I would say that the internship met and exceeded my expectations in this respect.

Whilst working for a Shanghai based magazine, I was kept extremely busy by my supervisor almost every day. My tasks involved editing content on Adobe InCopy to cut down on words and check that grammar, spelling and information was correct, as well as improving the articles for them to read well. I also wrote my own content for both the company’s WeChat subscription page and the cover story of the magazine. I found it super rewarding to see my name printed in a magazine as ‘Assistant Editor’! Of course, there were some challenges at times, such as juggling my own deadlines, being thrown numerous different tasks that were to be done quickly and efficiently, but I found that I thrived more from being busy at work than when work was a bit slow. I learnt to write to a standard I was proud of in much shorter time frames. I attended events, represented the magazine and mingled with the expat community in Shanghai.

Nonetheless, I found living in China to be an exciting challenge. The language was way more of an obstacle than I imagined it would be (which, in hindsight, was perhaps a bit naive of me), but luckily, my supervisor was native British and so the language barrier was not too apparent in the workplace, and more when it came to weekend trips away. Difficulties such as VPNs and menus entirely in Chinese were still apparent despite Shanghai being more cosmopolitan and ‘Western’ in comparison to the rest of China. I liked that traditional Chinese culture was easy to find, even just in the local park on my walk to work every morning.

I really gained a lot from the experience in China. I learnt that I am a pretty resilient person, and I proved to myself that I am capable of thriving, professionally and personally, whilst being completely out of my comfort zone. I was genuinely surprised at just how strong my support network was whilst I was in Shanghai. I feel as though made friends for life from the British Council scheme and I am extremely grateful for the experience.

China is an incredibly vast country, with such a distinct culture, I feel like I barely scratched the surface – 7 weeks is such a short amount of time! Although I have no immediate plans to return as of yet, I am sure that I will return to China in the future. Going forward, I feel more confident to seek work both abroad and within the media industry.

Such a great internship. Great host company, great accommodation and the CRCC team in Shanghai helped and supported me throughout my whole program whilst out in China. So grateful I was able to undertake such a life changing program. I will cherish the memories made, and experience gained for some time to come. Thank you CRCC.

The Generation UK CRCC scholarship program provided the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live and work in Beijing for two months. I adored the company, the culture, my bright, determined colleagues on the course and the experience. Thank you to both bodies for assisting me throughout this period, I’ll remember Beijing fondly and am keen to return!

The Generation UK programme is an amazing opportunity to get a personal insight in China’s Culture. My time in Beijing is nearly over and I can honestly say that it has been an experience to remember, I have developed amazing friendships, and a unique collection of networks from a variety of industries – in China and internationally. It has enabled me to develop a keen interest in the country aswell as cultural awareness, I am planning pursue a masters in Shanghai which I intend to start next September.

My experience was beneficial in many ways. The best part was probably my internship placement. I had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects and was able to learn a lot more than if I had interned in my home country.

I also love the country I chose, so CRCC Asia was such a great help in giving me the chance to have a great experience in Japan.