IOM has developed an INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME which targets young, talented undergraduate and graduate students, willing to gain practical experience in a field relevant to the Organization through their full involvement in daily working activities in migration-related areas and/or in public international administration.

Interns tend to be students approaching the end of their programme or graduates between 19 and 36 years of age (average age is 26).

Interns are given assignments and responsibility commensurate with their experience and they are referred to a supervisor/mentor, who is responsible for mentoring and coaching. They can be given short assignments either designed within on-going programmes or on an ad-hoc basis. Interns are not considered to be staff members but Terms of Reference, tasks, duration of assignment and supervisors are clearly determined. During their assignment, interns attend monthly briefings on the different services of the Organization and visit other UN-based International Organizations.

Interns previously recruited included were under-graduate and post-graduate students in International Relations, Political Science, Law, Information Technology, Information Science, Computer Science, International Public Administration, Procurement and Logistics, Accounting and Finance and Communications.