By Lara Pearce, HerBusiness Journalism Intern As the HerBusiness farewells this year’s international interns, we reflect on the valuable contribution that these future businesswomen made to our organisation. Whether it was their readiness to help with any task, their willingness to learn or simply their inexhaustible positivity, these young women both brightened up our workplace and improved our overall productivity. The HerBusiness recognises the need to build up our future business leaders through providing education and professional experience. One way that we work to achieve this is through our involvement in numerousinternational internship programs. Every year, the Network takes in interns from overseas as a part of its service to the international community of businesswomen. When conducted successfully, an internship program can be of great benefit both to your business and the interns you employ. As well as expanding your work force, international interns provide a multicultural awareness and fresh ideas through their differing approaches to business. Moreover, as a stepping-stone towards professional employment, internships are vital for many students today, as employers focus more and more on professional experience over educational credentials. Now, meet our team…
Sarah Ben Ali
The first intern to join our team was our “French girl”, Sarah Ben Ali, who commenced working with us in April. Sarah joined us for two months full-time over the winter months, traveling all the way from Paris to work with our team. She assisted with producing website content and managing our social media.
“Michele Lougheed, who manages the website and social media content at the HerBusiness, trained me most of the time and she taught me a lot concerning editing and publishing via the web and how to write media releases and newsletters and post on all our social media.”
Sarah appreciated the more relaxed Australian culture, as well as the Network’s positive workplace atmosphere. “I found the team very friendly. I liked the way that the team shared things because it created good relationships and linked everybody.” So, what did Sarah take back to Paris with her? As well as furthering her skills in web publication and learning to use new software, Sarah improved her oral and written English. “It was a really great experience for me, and it confirmed that I really want to work in editing and publication.”
An internship can encompass any aspects of your business’ projects and tasks. Depending on the size of your organisation, it is often a good idea to assign an employee to work with interns in their area of specialisation. Our two interns from Hong Kong worked one-on-one with our customer service administrator Stephanie Hiew, receiving personalised training and support throughout the length of their internship.
Yuki Chen
Yuki is in her second year of a Business degree at the Hong Kong Baptist University, including a minor in languages. Interning in Australia gave Yuki the opportunity to experience a very different business environment, expand her English language skills and gain more knowledge of business structures.
“Australia is one of the most developed countries in the Pacific region, so I wanted to come and learn more about its business environment and style, to see its commonalities and differences from other Asia Pacific Economies,” Yuki says. “Instead of just traveling, having the internship and actually being in the business sector helped me to gain a better understanding of it.”
Yuki worked behind the scenes, assisting with database and membership registration. Looking to one-day reach the top rungs of business management back in Hong Kong, Yuki acknowledges the value of her training at the HerBusiness: “I have improved my communication skills, computer skills and task management skills. By attending staff meetings, I have learnt how to deliver ideas, how to acknowledge others and myself and how to describe the statistics information in a more professional way.”
Lisa Zhou
Similarly to Yuki, Lisa joined our team from Hong Kong where she is currently undertaking a Behavioural Science degree. She plans to further her studies by completing a Masters degree in Brand Management. As she hopes to start up her own business in the future, Lisa was glad to gain experience working within a small business environment involved in business networking.
“I was inspired by the amazing interviews conducted at the HerBusiness with businesswomen such as Lois McBain and Suzy Green,” Lisa explains. “I enjoyed working at the HerBusiness because everyone was so nice. Everyone had a clear role and goals and the work was really meaningful, which made me feel essential for the company.”
During her time at the HerBusiness, Lisa shared some of the tasks involved in the day-to-day running of the business with her fellow intern Yuki. In addition to experiencing a new culture in Australia and developing her English language aptitude, Lisa gained many valuable skills while working in a professional business environment. “Not only did I learn computer skills such as Vlookup and sort skills in Excel, but also how to be more professional when doing business. Moreover, I learnt how to organise tasks for myself by putting the most important job on the top of my timetable to ensure that everything can be done in time.” So, what can your business offer an aspiring young businessperson looking to gain some practical knowledge before entering the workforce?
