Language
and work in NZ

Nevertheless, demand is rising for language programmes that are combined with either an unpaid internship or a paid work placement, according to some of the more established operators, such as Cleve Brown of Worldwide School of English in Auckland. He explains that he started offering internship programmes seven years ago due to demands from European agents. “Germany is still the strongest market, with growth from France and Belgium being experienced,” he explains.

At Language Schools New Zealand, Gus Fahy agrees that demand is on an upward spiral, in line with trends in other countries. “Demand is increasing and is only limited by what internships we have available,” he says.

Low levels of awareness as to how internship programmes can be implemented are reported among New Zealand businesses. “The main difficulty is the lack of understanding of interns by many companies,” relates Brown. “We don’t have this [programme] very much in New Zealand. It is surprisingly hard to get a new company to accept a free worker for a few months. However after their first one, they ask ‘when is the next one coming?’”

Internship programmes operate on the basis that a company will take on an unpaid extra employee, in effect, and supervise them while allowing them to experience life and the business environment of New Zealand. “Most students are impressed by the perceived informality of New Zealand work places and appreciate being valued for their input,” says Fahy, underlining that both interns and employers active in this field are satisfied with the outcome.

The paid work placement sector is well established in New Zealand for different reasons.

Employers are all too aware of the value of foreign labour and holiday destinations such as Queenstown often suffer from a shortage in seasonal staff. As Blaise Barham at Southern Lakes English College in Queenstown testifies, placement students can help plug the gap. He says the difficulties involved with this particular placement sector however, are “finding enough workers” and he lists hotels, restaurants, bars, wineries and cafés as the sorts of places their students might find work.

Barham says his school guarantees a position to enrolling students while at Aspect New Zealand, which offers both internships and paid work placement, Sheryl Jackson says, “Aspect guarantees the job interview for [paid placement] students and as our pre-arrival testing processes are quite stringent, students should be able to obtain a job after their interview rounds.”

As well as seasonal resort work in tourist-facing environments such as hotels, another fairly typical paid work placement is in the horticulture industry. Geoff Butler at Mount Maunganui Language Centre relates that the work is “physically demanding, with quite long hours, but the pay is quite good and it is a very good chance to interact with both local people and those from other countries”. He says that his school is uniquely situated in the “heart of the major kiwi-growing centre, enabling us to offer employment opportunities that students might not find elsewhere”.

Most students looking to team English tuition with a paid placement will enter New Zealand on a working holiday visa. Marion Schoenenberger from Crown Institute of Studies explains that students can undertake more than one three-month placement (this is the average length) under their 12-month visa conditions. “We are happy to help them with more than one job placement but only the first placement is guaranteed,” she says. Schoenenberger underlines that their internship placements are considered volunteer positions and so there is no real minimum to a placement in a company dealing in, for example, wildlife conservation, ecology education or team leadership. She sums up that all the programmes offered enable students to “discover New Zealand in a very different way”. It can either enhance a students CV or enable the student to earn money, facilitating further exploration of the country.