Merseyside Expanding Horizons regularly hosts interns from different parts of Europe, and we are registered as hosting organisation on SEND Mobility Platform. The platform helps the matching with the students and their universities, as well as support all the parts involved.
Having students from different countries in the office feeds our multicultural working environment. Working in a such diverse context gives us opportunity to learn from other cultures and helps us widen our perspectives.
For MEH, having interns is not only a way to help them to grow and gain valuable skills. Myself and my colleagues can also learn a lot from them. For example, as young people, interns are mainly digital native and have usually developed good digital skills and teach us different things in terms of how to reach youth throught specific channels (Instagram, vlogs… ) they have new fresh ideas that can benefit MEH and all the team.
Hosting interns has also improved my leadership skills. By mentoring interns, myself and my colleagues improve leading and supervising abilities.
MEH has also benefitted of taking interns as a good way to find new motivated employees, for example Leonardo, was sent by SEND for 6 months, and he ended up staying with us managing projects for more than a year. It’s basically a good way to test if that person works good with the team.
Having people around Europe also creates important connections to different countries. Our interns become ambassadors of our way to work and help us in enlarging connections for new potential partnerships.
EU young people at MEH have also inspired local youth in our community. They get to meet people from different cultures and learn from them when participating in our activities. It also inspires them to try new things and grow as individuals.
Overall having interns’ benefits both MEH and interns in many ways and in best case scenario creates connections that last for life.
Thank you SEND for your great work !
Anna Bellan from Merseyside Expanding Horizons, Liverpool (UK)
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