Study WBF/OE: Internship abroad

I was in Palermo for the WBF/OE internship at the Erasmus Learning Academy. The organization runs international training courses on various pedagogical and didactic topics for teachers from Europe.

My main task was to accompany the courses. This included supporting the trainers, helping the participants and documenting the learning process. From time to time, I was also able to lead my own course units. I also carried out the cultural activities, which meant taking the groups on guided tours of the sights of Palermo.

I came across the internship position via the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) internship platform. There were some interesting offers in Italy under the search term "education". The internships offered there have the advantage that the working language is usually English. I had already learned basic Italian in the language courses at TU Dresden, but this was not absolutely necessary for my internship.

Once I had been accepted for the internship, I was able to apply for Erasmus funding for internships abroad. The application process was not particularly difficult. There are no application deadlines for internship funding, but you shouldn't apply too late. I applied in November and for me the funding pot for the period was almost exhausted.

The internship fulfilled my expectations in several ways. Firstly, I was able to gain valuable practical experience as a trainer. Thanks to the weekly changes in course content, I received a lot of input and got to know new methods. Secondly, I was able to accompany a new international group every week and thus observe very different group dynamics. Of course, I also got to know a lot of interesting people as a result.

Not to be neglected is the fact that the internship gave me the opportunity to discover the lively city of Palermo, travel around Sicily, go hiking and experience a wonderfully warm spring.

Unfortunately, my expectations of improving my Italian were not fulfilled. During the internship, I only spoke English and I also had difficulties understanding the Sicilian dialect.

I found it difficult to make contact with local people outside of the internship. I got on very well with my colleagues and we also met up privately from time to time. However, I spent most of my free time alone, which was okay for the limited duration. Nevertheless, next time I would try to get to know other people right from the start through flatmates, a hobby or other events (at the university, in the theater or in the café next door).