Internship opportunities abound in Middle East

dubai — More than eight in ten interns claim that they are able to find many internship opportunities using online job sites and around similar number of interns are willing to complete unpaid internship, according to a new survey.

The survey was conducted in a poll titled “Internships in the Middle East and North Africa” by jobs portal Bayt.com

From the companies’ perspective, more than four out of five (86.9 per cent) respondents claimed that their companies “always have interns”, this was followed by a small number (5.4 per cent) who said they do have interns but “not always”, 3.3 per cent said they don’t have interns but are “planning to start”, and only 4.4 per cent said they are “not interested” in having interns.

Nearly eight out of 10 respondents surveyed (78.1 per cent) said that there are “enough internship opportunities available” in the Middle East region. Only 21.9 per cent of respondents disagree with this statement.

In fact, more than seven out of ten respondents (73.1 per cent) found an internship in their country of residence “easily” as students, compared 26.9 per cent who felt that it was difficult to find an internship.

There is always room for improvement, nonetheless. Almost all (98.8 per cent) of those surveyed believe companies should work with universities to create more internship programmes, compared to just 1.2 per cent who disagreed.

Governments seem to have a big role as well. 97.4 per cent of those surveyed agreed that local governments should encourage and support developing intern- ship programmes, compared to just 2.6 per cent that disagreed.

The majority (88.2 per cent) of respondents in the region believe that interns are “very useful” to their businesses. 9.2 per cent of respondents believe that interns are “somewhat useful” and only 2.6 per cent said that interns are “not useful”.

Those surveyed said there were several benefits for having an intern. More than seven out of ten respondents (73.6 per cent) stated that internships allow them to identify talent for future positions. Other benefits that were discussed include the ability to “quickly fill temporary and seasonal positions” and “providing extra help for small teams or departments.”

“Young talent and fresh graduates looking to secure their first role should take advantage of the many internships, entry level jobs, as well as the job search tools and information available on Bayt.com,” said Suhail Masri, vice president of Employer Solutions, Bayt.com.

—waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com