Travellers Worldwide Internships in Australia: Engineering, Architecture and more

I am extremely disappointed…

I chose this company in good faith when I decided to go to Australia to have a rewarding working experience. As it turned out, the large amount of money to find me a training experience was no more than coffee making placement. We can say that my experience was extremely good in increasing my skills in the use of a photocopy machine. I met 2 other people who made an internship by Traveller and they were both disappointed, but they were lucky to didn't take several months as I deeply regret!

At the beginning, the staff of Travellers were nice (I mean the minimum), which is quite normal I guess as they want you to choose their company... But once I started my training, I contacted the person in charge in Australia to talk about my deception regarding my work, and she just tell me that "it's probably gonna be better after"... so I continued my internship, doing all the tasks even if it was really useless in term of experience and even for the company, until the end, by respect to my colleagues and regarding my commitment. But I have to say that doing a useless job when you don't get salary it's already a waste of time, but if it's a useless job and you also paid a lot of money for it, I just call this a big scam.

Furthermore, I was also really disappointed by the staff of Traveller and their lack of courtesy and respect. As an exemple (but I have several), I had book my accommodation by Traveller: at one point, I wanted to leave the hostel few days (for a trip) and come back after, so I informed the hostel and also the staff of Traveller of my departure (as others have done). But when I came back, Travellers staff claimed to have used my money to paid the hostel when I wasn't here, and they told me that they will not refund me those days. So I could understand this without any problem. But the truth is that the hostel didn't received any money from Traveller for those days, and the manager of the hostel gave me the bill as a proof. Traveller just lied to me and tried to keep my money instead to use for the services I paid for. When I contacted the headquarter to talk about my deception of this program, they didn't treat me with respect or even as a client, and they asked me to justified all the time, and even with the proofs that I sent to them, they never recognized their mistake and in addition they were unpleasant.

I have to say that my biggest disappointment wasn't really about the money I lost, but it was about the minimum of courtoise that I never get from this organism (staff in Australia as well as the office in UK).
So the result : I lost a large amount of money in this, no experience gain at all, and I was treated with no respect until the end. I really advice you to choose another company for professional experience, you could easily find better company and cheaper.

The term teaching English to refugee children in Perth Australia was the most meaningful volunteer experience I've had. The Intensive English Center at Eddystone Primary School is top drawer. It's mission is to assist new arrival students with curriculum, social, and emotional needs. The faculty was engaged, energetic, and welcoming. I felt appreciated, valued and humbled to be part of this very special environment. The students were from a dozen different countries, all EAGER to learn, and very appreciative. That was very refreshing!

As a more senior volunteer I have spent many years in classrooms as a teacher, aide, and volunteer. I made my own living arrangements near the school and that worked well for me.

Western Australia is an amazing place to visit, the Indian Ocean beautiful, and Perth a lovely city to live in. I would highly recommend this particular placement, one you cannot put a price on. It was hard to leave!

This whole experience was one of the best things I have ever done, both personally and in terms of my CV.

Initially I decided to do the internship because I needed more broadcast experience for a masters course I was about to start. I had wanted to travel anyway so when I saw the intern opportunity at West TV, Perth, I decided to kill two birds with one stone!

Travellers Worldwide were very helpful with booking my stay, and even though I did it all a bit last minute they put me in touch with another girl doing the exact same programme at the same time, also from the UK. We were able to meet up halfway to Australia (in Dubai airport, randomly) and from then on we were pretty much inseparable!

I stayed at Townsend Lodge in Perth, just a short distance from the TV station where I was interning. I would describe Townsend as an eclectic mix between youth hostel and student halls - you get your own decent-sized bedroom, but bathrooms, kitchen and living spaces are all shared. I absolutely loved staying here, I met so many interesting people from all over the world, from other Travellers interns to students at the Perth Uni to workers on the W.A. railway line! The staff were part of the crowd, we would all sit out together (even tho' it was August and technically 'winter') and chat, cook, drink, go out... It was just a wonderful atmosphere. The sort of place you could open a beer (or Skye vodka alcopop in my case, yumyum!) head outside and lose a game of poker to a 25-year-old Singaporean and a 50-year-old Peruvian, cheered on by an honest-to-God Californian cheerleader.

Work at the TV station was good - I learned a lot of basic broadcasting skills which served me in good stead during my masters and in my current work in broadcast journalism. The allocation of interns wasn't particularly well-organised, but I think this was more because the station had recently relocated and also hosted a number of high-school work experience kids more than any real oversight.

The flexible working schedule meant that I had plenty of opportunities to explore the city of Perth, nearby Freemantle and Cottesloe - even going surfing and kangaroo-spotting! Perth is a fantastic city, I felt really safe all the time (even when I decided to take a taxi home on my own at 4am...!) and the locals were some of the friendliest I have ever met.

Our Travellers rep would check in with us every week or so and even had all the interns round to hers for a classic Australian BBQ one weekend! (Complete with kangaroo steaks - TRY THEM!)

I would recommend this type of programme for anyone aged 18-30ish (although my friend was mid-thirties and loved every minute). If like me you have a nostalgia for the fun times and communal atmosphere of uni halls, definitely stay in the Lodge. Please do not be scared to book something like this on your own - I am really shy but I made so many incredible friends in just a short time. There are no cliques, everyone is there for the pure enjoyment of travelling, learning and experiencing new things and everytime I tell people about it their faces go all envy-pinched!

My friends and I even got tattoos to commemorate the whole thing :)