Bad Placement in Valencia, Spain

I completed a 2-week Marketing & Communications internship in Valencia, Spain. The city was a beautiful place that I completely enjoyed living in and exploring. The internship itself, however, was not worth the money that I paid for it. The internship promised that its students would learn about marketing, website design, copywriting, graphic design, etc. In my placement with the Villarreal soccer club, none of this was mentioned. Instead, I spent my first week researching the club and its programs, which makes sense but is also something that I could have done at home prior to leaving for Spain. My second week was spent researching the team's past players and writing articles about their soccer careers. I did most of the work from an office in Valencia, and only visited the team's actual office in Vila-real once, where I was put into a back room and told to continue my research, making the trip a complete waste of time.

Then, when I reached out to my main contact with IAHQ, complaining that this placement had given me nothing in terms of experience or learning new things within the communications industry, they simply said, "Well, you did only sign up for two weeks, which is considered an 'introduction period. Tough luck.'" No internship that I have ever had throughout my four years of college was an 'introduction period.' That's what college classes are for. That's not what an internship is.

From my experience in Valencia and meeting other interns from all over the world who were also interning with IAHQ, very few of them were having a good experience with their placements. One of my friends was a PT student hoping to go into nursing, and they placed her in a gym to observe workout classes. Another intern in the medical field was placed in a women's monastery. He showed up to his first day of the internship and was told he couldn't go inside, men were not allowed. So, as a result, he spent his first of three weeks without an internship as IAHQ scrambled to find him a different placement.

Therefore, it seems to me that this program is not actually listening to the wants and desires of their interns, who pay a huge sum to be a part of this program. They also don't do their research into the companies they are placing their interns with. Additionally, they have very poor communication. Before leaving for Spain, I had no idea what my internship placement was, even though I had emailed weeks before leaving asking for more information.