Alliance Abroad | Paid Internships in Australia - Temporarily Suspended

Alliance Abroad helped me with the things I may not have been motivated enough to do myself, moving to Australia was intimidating and they took that factor out of the decision.
The help with housing was limited, I had a struggle finding a place to live and ended up spending more time than I wanted to in the hostel.
The internship itself led to great opportunities, and I met a lot of great people while in the program.

The Alliance Abroad Program has been an amazing and life changing experience. When I entered the program I never imagined the support and mentorship I would have received. I truly am so blessed with the internship I landed, my boss and workers have been nothing but welcoming, making sure I get the most of this international experience.

The Alliance Abroad program has made sure I am happy, excited and benefiting from the internship and well involving me in social events. I could not ask for a better team to travel with. I am proud represent Alliance Abroad and tell future member about my experience.

So far I have been in the program for one month. It has been an amazing experience so far. Everyone I work with has been great to be around and AAG has been very supportive. Every week there has always been something new to do or experience and I look forward to the months ahead.

I have been working with Anita on pursuing a role in Australia, and I'm very excited to say we secured one at The Westin Melbourne! I am so thankful to be working with Anita, she is patient, diligent, motivating, and very personable! She has worked so hard with me to find a position in Melbourne and I'm so thankful that she is so persevering! I'm very excited to meet her, as well as Carolyn who is amazing as well. Carolyn has been outstandingly helpful with the logistics of my trip and has made me feel very comfortable even though there was a lot to do in a short amount of time! I'm very impressed by all that these two have done for me so far, and can't wait to meet them when I arrive! I will be sure to leave more comments on my experience when I start my job, but I'd have to rate the experience so far (from the submission of my application to the preparation for traveling to Australia) a ten.

AAG walked me through it all!

From the beginning the interview was very thorough. They care and you can tell. With the most detailed questions, they not only analysed my experience but my wants, desires, skills, behaviors, future goals, and so much more.

After this interview, they sent me in one email everything I needed to make this trip happen and in the most safest way possible.
The things I was walked through was some of the most simplest things to the more difficult as in:
Obtaining a: Passport, Visa, Health/Travel Insurance
Teaching: How to build and "fluff" a resume, master an interview, what the Australian culture is like, safe traveling tips, tricks, and practices
Aware me of: Costs of living, wordage, fun festivals and events, location of housing
And so much more

Since arrival I have done so much and have yet had a bland day. I get contacted a minimal of once and week to see if I'm okay and offer assistants and all that they can. They met me in person within 24 hours of arrival and gave me a rundown of how public transport works and where all the free entertainment is.

AAG has pair me with a career that given me the chance learn, grow, laugh, and implement my skills to build a suitable resume for the future.

So whether your thinking about the fun, the career, the traveling, the experience, the culture, or even just starting of fresh with somewhere new....

I would recommend AAG to hold your hand through that walk of life.

See you when you get here,

Frankie C.

I came to Melbourne in July 2014 for a 6 month internship in the Business/Events program.

AAG helped me get a business internship with a really great company, working for really great people. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better placement. It's given me experience in marketing (my degree is in marketing), international business and business development, a look into the way the Australian and Victorian governments work, and overall just how to interact with people differently.

The really important part of a review that people really want to read about, though, is the negative aspects (if any). Overall, my experience with AAG has been a relatively positive one. But there was definitely a lot of uncertainty and stress (and, frankly, dissatisfaction with the program) surrounding the housing aspect.

What got me is that we paid a program fee to help us cover every aspect of moving here, and the only support we got is a few website links that, honestly, we could have found ourselves (so why did I pay for that?).

The housing was far and away my biggest stressor. Luckily I was able to find a place in a week, but only after spending that entire week camped out on real estate websites and sending countless emails to real estate agents and landlords, but I have talked to others and some people had a much harder time than me.

The other issue is the salary. I was told that it covers basic costs, but if I'm being honest, it barely does. When it comes down to it, $1500 is not a lot of money, and it's quite hard to live off of. I have a place in the CBD, which is $1200/month. That has left me with only $300 per month for everything else, like groceries, utility bills, and anything else. I realize that there are other options farther from the city and with roommates, etc. that are cheaper, but I feel like it shouldn't be a salary so low that participants have to perform acrobatics just to get a living situation that will allow them to cover necessities and leave extra for socializing, etc. Because ultimately, people don't join this program to go live somewhere and struggle to get by. I was also told that some people opt for second jobs. Again, I didn't join the program to have a day job and then need a second job just so I can afford to have a life (and then not have a lot of extra time for that social life). I'm lucky that my parents are amazing and helping me out while I'm here, but there are others who don't have that luxury.

But, like I said, I love my job and AAG has definitely exceeded my expectations in that aspect.

Also, they put a lot of effort into organizing social events and getting participants together. It's important to be with other people that you can relate to, especially living so far away from home. It's easy to make friends in that respect because you've always got tons of opportunities to be with AAG members.

The decision to go to Australia was made long ago before I actually went there. Things happened very fast and within 3 weeks I booked my flight, got a job (after several mock interviews) and started into my adventure.
After spending the first three nights in a hostel I found a flat shared with 4 other nice people. Finding a room wasn't easy, but I didn't want to leave in the hostel by the start of my internship. So I made a profile on flatmates.com.au and browsed through tons of ads. After three long days of visiting flats I found a relatively good one in Glebe, a young suburb which is also close to everything you need (and to the office I'm working in).
Once work started things slowly settled and I began to feel at home in Sydney. It's important to have your day-to-day business!
On the weekends I took several trips with people I got to know in diverse Facebook groups. That's something I highly recommend: search for people in your age/ with same background etc. It makes things much easier if you find people you can hang out with.
In the beginning everything's very unclear - though you might have planned a lot - but that's what it's all about: you never can plan everything. Just jump into the cold water and see what happens. And even if you have your doubts in the beginning, you'll definitively get to a point, where you say: It was all worth it. And once you reached that point, you know you got what you were looking for!

This company is seriously the worst company ever, They say they will help you with housing and jobs but once they receive your money or once you are in Australia, they really don't care about you.

I joined the event program, paid $3500 and they set me up with a telemarketing job. If you do work Alliance Abroad, and they offer you a job make sure you know what the job is, because they sugar coated my job making it sound like it was an event job but in truth it was a telemarketing job, I didn't even get to participate in one single event. I traveled all the way to Australia, found my own housing (they say they'll help you but all they do is send you a couple of links to some websites). They said they have a headquarter back in the states, but its a phone number that is directed to Australia. Pretty much its 2-3 people running this scam. This company made all their websites/facebook professional but their ethics are horrible. DO NOT TRUST THEM.

These event/hospitality jobs that they find you, you can easily go on seek.com.au and find better paying jobs yourself. Seriously they want you to join this program and they advertise it as "Paid Internship". For one, you only get paid $1500. Everything is so expensive in Australia that there is no way you can afford to live off of $1500 unless you're slumming it and having one meal a month. The housing itself is $1200.

I have testimonials not only from me, but from other people who are in this program. All of the people I talked to in this program said they were unhappy with the program.

All of the other reviews I wouldn't doubt if they wrote it themselves. Because I know for a fact I was THE FIRST PERSON FROM THE EVENT/HOSPITALITY PROGRAM to go to Australia. So I honestly don't know how they have reviews from other people when I was the first one there.

If you want to go to Australia and do not want to spend $3500 and not get scammed you're more than welcome to message me and I will help you with everything. This is how serious I am about this horrible program!