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Twin Work & Volunteer

3.5 Rating
4 reviews
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Why choose Twin Work & Volunteer?

Based in London, Twin Work & Volunteer are one of the UK's leading providers of internships, volunteering and gap year programmes. With over 20 years of experience, we believe in giving people from around the world career and life enhancing experiences, and with over 60 programmes on offer we're sure that we have the right option for everyone.

Whether you're choosing to go on a volunteering or internship programme you're in safe hands with us, as we are a 5 time winner of the STM Work Experience Provider of the Year Award, a member of The Year Out Group, and recommended by ResponsibleTravel.com

Founded
1995

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Reviews

Nerida
Female
1/5
No, I don't recommend this program
Program:
Twin Work and Volunteer | Language Assistant in Montpellier, France

Organise the trip yourself

Jul 4, 2016

Twin group provides no service that you could not do yourself for a much cheaper price.
By all means go to Montpellier and take the course, but cut out the middle man. They charge more than the school for classes and a homestay arrangement and will not hesitate to tell you that it's your fault when they've provided you with misleading information. They will calmly place you in a homestay 2 hours away from Montpellier and repeatedly tell you that it's less than 1 hour away. They have little desire to know whether you're satisfied with the program and will make no effort to follow up with you after you've paid your money.

Alessandro
Male
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program
Program:
Twin Work and Volunteer | Professional Internships London, England

Great Experience!

Apr 2, 2016

Hi, my name is Alessandro and I come from Italy.
I did an internship via Twin that helped me to growth. I spent 16 weeks in an international distribution company in London dedicated to the worldwide sales of documentaries. Twin helped me to find this internship and to pass the inevitable interview.
This experience gave me the necessary basis to enter in the working world and improved my English.

Vincent
Male
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program
Program:
Twin Work and Volunteer | Professional Internships London, England

Internship in a Human Resources in a British company.

Feb 6, 2015

I made an internship of 6 weeks in a London-based company.
My work consisted in booking interpreting sessions for patients who do not speak English in Great British hospitals.
At the beginning, it was a bit hard to communicate in English with people over the phone but I got used to it bit by bit. At the stage of 3-4 weeks I was familiarised with the language and I could talk easily with others.
Going abroad is the best way to learn more about both English corporate and social culture.
I strongly spur students who like English culture to go abroad to discover more, and improve their language level.

What would you improve about this program?
If I had one thing to change concerning this internship would be the accomodation.
My family was not very nice because of money and health issues of my host person.
Furthermore, my room was not very wide and I did not have enough space to move into it.
The rest of this experience was great.
Response from Twin Work & Volunteer

Thank you very much for your honest review. We at TWIN Work & Volunteer are really glad that over all you enjoyed your experience in London. We are also extremely grateful for your productive criticism.
We always try to make sure our host families are fully vetted, so our participants are well taken care of and safe. However, we will do our best to improve that in the future.

By Twin Group on February 9, 2015
Read my full story
Cresha
Female
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program
Program:
Twin Work and Volunteer | Teaching Assistant Volunteer in Nepal

A reAlly great experience!

Nov 18, 2014

I volunteered in Nepal for almost 3 months teaching English and doing women's empowerment! What an amazing experience and great way to give back to an awesome travel experience! Twin helped and supported me from the beginning and my Nepali volunteer house was everything I needed for an impactful experience!

Programs

Displaying 1 - 3 of 3

Alumni Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with verified alumni.

Vincent Dardenne

Program
Twin Work and Volunteer | Professional Internships London, England
Hello everyone, my name is Vincent, I am a young Frenchman of 22, and I am coming from Nantes, which is a city situated in Brittany, on the Atlantic French coast. I am currently attending a 2-year long Management training to become a Personal Assistant. The name of my school is IMS (Institut des métiers de l’enseignement supérieur). It provides many trainings in many professional sectors like insurance, tourism, law etc… When I finish my studies, I would like to work in the Human Resources department of an English-speaking company.
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Why did you decide to go abroad with your provider?

For a long time I have had the will to practice English in a professional context. I have a good level of English at school which I thought deserved to be dared at work. In fact, I wanted to speak English on a steady daily basis. Besides, I like the anglo-saxon culture and wanted to better know this country and this folk.

So, I made my internship with Twin Institute, which is based in London. They provide internships and other kind of experiences such as Gap Year, or Volunteering assignments all over the world. I decided to go abroad with this provider because I thought at the very beginning they were a serious team, they did a great job for me. Otherwise, I wanted to discover the corporate culture of England which is very useful to know at times of globalization.

What did your provider do for you and what did you need to do on your own?

My provider Twin had to find me a company for my internship in a department I wanted to work in I had mentioned at the beginning (it was Human Resources). Furthermore, they had to find me an accommodation. They have a directory of companies and families who are used to welcoming foreigner students. Of course, I had to provide a certain amount of money for them to organize this experience.

Moreover, before getting to the UK, I had to choose which meals to be provided to me during my internship by my host family. I chose breakfasts to be fed. Lunches and dinner were at my own expenses. Also, I had to back the transportation (Oyster Card for the Tube), to commute to work from home. At last, Twin ensured a replacement in another company if mine I was interning in did not suit to my expectations.

What made this experience unique and special?

The thing that made this experience so unique and special is that you are learning each day to talk with people in another language. You are immersed in a different culture, a different world which has another point of view of life and work from yours. You are speaking English every day to communicate with people, both on a leisure or on a professional context.

It is a very rewarding experience that deserves to be lived because you learn many words and you can discover the aspects of the culture. You collaborate with foreigners to deal with work issues you have in your office to finally succeed together.

Furthermore, you discover the mentality and the habits of people bit by bit, the way they work, eat and have hobbies. Besides, what is funny is to see how foreigners imagine us, the stereotypes and the ideas they have on us. It is interesting to interact with them about our own differences to better know others.

How has this experience impacted your future?

Through this experience, I learnt to be more comfortable with English by talking with others every day in English, I familiarized with usual phrases people are used to saying. Professionally, I could learn new words bonding with corporate culture of England and IT tools.

It unraveled one of my future wishes which is to have a professional experience in an English-speaking country of 1 or 2 years. I think it is a great way to socialize with foreigners and to realize you are capable to treat things you would not even have thought before. Finally, academically, it all the more improved my English level during courses. As I learnt many phrases I can now reuse them anytime I want to look more alike professional!

What is one piece of advice you'd give future students traveling with your program?

The piece of advice I would give future students is to talk the more possible you can with people to improve your skills in language. The more you will talk, the better English level you will have. Then, you have to try to speak even if you are missing out of words.

At the beginning, speaking in another language is very difficult and daring but it will loosen up at one moment of your experience and you will see that you are becoming more and more accustomed to English. Some days, it can be more difficult to understand clearly people (i.e: phone calls) and it can be despairing but you have to stick on it. Tiredness is one of the most common reason of not understanding. When you are getting back home in your country, you will concretely see the progress you made during your stay!

Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

James Ong-Fox

Program
Twin Work and Volunteer | Professional Internships London, England
Job Title
Senior Travel Adviser
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What position do you hold at Twin and why do you like working there?

I am the Senior Travel Advisor at Twin Work & Volunteer. The reason why I joined Twin is that I attended their Language Assistant programme in China, and stayed out there for 6 months back in 2008. I had the time of my life over there, and I stayed in touch with Twin during my university studies. That’s how I ended up joining the Twin team. I enjoy working for Twin because I know from experience that they provide excellent quality cultural exchange programmes, as well as international internships and volunteering opportunities.

Have you participated in meaningful travel abroad? If so, where and what inspired you to go?

Yes, I have travelled both China and France extensively. As I mentioned above, I spent 6 months teaching English in Shanghai where I also visited Beijing, Hangzhou and Huangshan. I worked in a school as a language tutor, and the children were such a good laugh to work with.

The reason why I decided to travel to China was because I am half Chinese, but I never had travelled there so I decided to go and experience the other half of my identity. In the end it was completely worth it, as I learnt so much and had the time of my life. China is a country where you will inevitably experience a plethora of things for the first time, and it is a brilliant, challenging place to visit.

What does the future hold for Twin - any exciting new programs to share?

Twin has recently been awarded the right to sponsor Tier 5 visas for eligible non-EU engineering graduates to come over to the UK and attend a work experience in their field of studies. This is a truly exciting prospect, as this provides us with the chance to provide proper opportunities to hard working graduates from around the world, both benefitting the UK as well as the customers themselves. To add to this, we have also added a wide range of intriguing volunteering programmes this year, ranging from our Big Cat Conservation volunteer project in South Africa, and our Lemur Research volunteer project in Madagascar.

How does your organization differ from other ones in the industry?

Twin Work & Volunteer is unique in the fact that we offer high quality paid work experiences, teaching cultural exchanges, unpaid professional internships and volunteering opportunities in both conservation and community work. The fact that we offer such a wide spectrum of programmes means that anyone looking for an opportunity in which they can develop their skills, or have a unique life experience can find the right programme for them in one, easy to access place.

What is one thing you would tell any future participant?

When you decide to book with Twin, you are going to be looked after by a team of experienced travellers, who all have their own unique advice to pass onto you to help properly prepare you for your adventure you have committed to. Speaking as a happy customer turned team member of Twin, I can assure you that you will be in safe hands.