Internship at the TVET Department

I spent a two week school practicum at the AHK's vocational training department in Cairo. I wrote an email to the head of the department and informed myself about a possible internship. I was immediately very interested in this due to the complexity of the various professional fields.

The AHK-Egypt promotes cooperation between Germany and the Arab world, especially in the economic field, and represents the interests of German and Egyptian companies in Egypt. That is why the AHK has to deal with many different companies and cooperates with them.

I was in the department for two weeks. During my first week I attended the practical exams of vocational students in a workshop and helped organize them. The following week, I helped prepare the results, did translations, and attended meetings. I was able to gain a lot of new experiences and get to know new people, especially when I assisted with the examinations.

I learned a lot during my internship at the AHK and think because I was much more involved in work and day-to-day activities than I would have thought and was positively surprised at the level of responsibility and trust that was placed in me. My expectations regarding the internship were exceeded.

My name is Haya Ali. I was an intern in the TVET department of the AHK for two months. When I started my internship, I had no special expectations; I thought I would only do general office work, as is customary for an internship. But I was lucky enough to have colleagues who made sure that I attended every event and meeting and even visited the training centers. This gave me a very good insight into the work of the department. Under the supervision of my colleagues, I was given a lot of responsibility, which made the internship very interesting and enabled me to learn a lot of new things.

From the first day of the internship, I participated in the organization of the workshops and chamber’s departmental meetings. I also had the opportunity to attend meetings between the department and the foundations. Less than a week after the internship started, we visited one of the local vocational schools to see how it went there. We watched their lessons and the practical work as well as the preparation for the practical exams. It was very interesting for me to work outside of the office.

Unfortunately, my internship had to be shifted to home office after almost a month, but that didn't make it any less educational. I continued to get tasks on a daily basis and to specifically work on the department's marketing. I got in direct contact with people from different sectors to organize the marketing material. I even took part in many online meetings with the foundations and learned a lot just by observing. I also organized an online information session for the apprentices in one of the schools.

All in all, I am very impressed with the work of the department and how the employees there give an intern the chance to learn a lot during his time there. My colleagues there were always ready to help me and answer all of my questions.