Internship Program

An internship program is a formalized scheme through which an organization recruits students or recent graduates for short-term placements, typically lasting between six weeks and twelve months. In the international affairs sector, programs range from highly competitive, paid fellowships to unpaid placements that require interns to cover their own travel and living costs.

For MUN delegates and IR students, the best-known programs include:

• The United Nations Headquarters Internship Programme in New York, Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi, which accepts applicants currently enrolled in or recently graduated from a graduate-level program. UN internships at headquarters have historically been unpaid, though the General Assembly has periodically revisited this policy.
• The European Union's Blue Book Traineeship (Schuman Traineeship) at the European Commission, a paid five-month placement open to university graduates with at least a bachelor's degree.
• The NATO Internship Programme, a paid six-month placement at NATO HQ in Brussels.
• The OECD Internship Programme in Paris, open to currently enrolled graduate students.
• The World Bank Internship Program (WBIP) and IMF Fund Internship Program (FIP), both paid and aimed at graduate students in economics, finance, or related fields.
• National foreign-ministry programs such as the U.S. Department of State Student Internship Program and the UK FCDO internships.

Internships typically include substantive research, drafting, and meeting-support tasks rather than purely clerical work, though the balance varies by supervisor. Selection criteria commonly include academic standing, language skills (often English plus one other working language), and demonstrated interest in the organization's mandate.

Internships are widely treated as a pipeline into professional roles, though most programs explicitly state that completion confers no entitlement to subsequent employment. The unpaid nature of many placements has drawn sustained criticism for limiting access to candidates with independent financial support, prompting reforms at several institutions in recent years.