Internships in Ukraine
Ukraine Work Study Program
NOTE: as of fall 2007 this program has been discontinued. It may be resumed at some later date. Read why here.
This program is for self-motivated students and professionals with a knowledge of Ukrainian or Russian and a serious interest in Ukraine, its languages, and culture. Participants can experience as much cultural and language immersion as they want and can travel freely and take part in any activities that suit them. This is an individualized program created by TryUkraine author Rick DeLong with the purpose of helping create meaningful intercultural experiences for both foreign students and professionals, and Ukrainian organizations that are seeking to diversify their contacts.
Our services within this program are the following:
- locate and contact Ukrainian organizations, visit them, and agree on form and terms of internship
- correspond with potential interns, provide them with necessary information to plan their trip and obtain a visa
- provide a host family or make sure the hosting organization has provided a suitable one (other accommodation options may be possible), help change host families or find other accommodations if necessary
- provide in-country assistance to interns and organizations if necessary (hosting organizations will help interns with day-to-day problems)
 download application for potential interns
The program fee is $500 and is covered by the intern (half is due before arrival, the other half upon arrival). Most internships are unpaid, but accommodations are provided free of charge by hosting organizations wherever possible. Often interns can make some money on the side by teaching English (or other native language) at local language schools.
Since early 2004 student participants have worked in organizations such as the following:
- human rights law NGO (Kiev)
- society that rehabilitates former drug users (Poltava)
- NGO information center (Lviv)
- anti-human trafficking NGO (Kiev)
- refugee assistance NGO (Kiev)
- street kids' shelter (Kiev)
see list of current openings
read interns' comments on their experiences
 IMPORTANT: All positions require at least a conversational level of Russian or Ukrainian except those that are marked. Organizations are interested in young people (students and recent graduates) who may or may not have experience in the field, and in specialists of any age. If you do not speak Russian or Ukrainian and would our assistance finding work in Ukraine, read about finding a language teaching job and looking for work in Ukraine on the Internet.
Living expenses
In the vast majority of cases these internships are unpaid. At the most interns can hope to receive free housing from the organization (room with a host family), but this depends on the organization's resources. You will need to have money reserves to pay for your living expenses, which will typically amount to $250 a month and up, not including housing. If you are a native speaker of English or another European language, we can try to get you part-time work teaching English, but we cannot guarantee you a position, as this depends on the language schools.
Other positions in Ukraine
If you are interested in the Ukraine Work Study Program but would like to work in a field other than those in my list, please write to me at  or through the guestbook. I will do all I can to make new contacts with organizations in your area of interest and sell the idea of hosting a foreign intern if you are committed to coming to Ukraine for this purpose.
continue to current openings
download application for potential interns
Why the internship program has been discontinued.
As of fall 2007 this program has been discontinued. There are several reasons for this. One is that the cost of living in Ukraine and Kiev specifically has gone way up, and the idea of spending ever more money to volunteer at an organization makes little financial sense these days. Teaching English on the side is an option to pay for the experience, but this now requires enough time and effort to significantly reduce the time available for internship activities. The other main reason for discontinuing the program is that I am generally dissatisfied with how Ukrainian organizations meet (or rather, fail to meet) western interns' expectations. Western interns expect to be involved immediately in productive activity, but few Ukrainian NGOs are organized enough to provide the work atmosphere interns are expecting. They more expect to become friends with the interns. I could put a lot more time and effort into prepping organizations and helping smooth over the misunderstandings, but then to make this worthwhile to me I would have to charge interns more than I feel comfortable charging, making the experience yet more expensive.
In my opinion, Ukraine's big cities are no longer a place where you can come over and live cheaply while testing out different kinds of activities and just hanging out and learning the language and culture. It was like this when I first came here in 2000. Nowadays, in my opinion, it only makes sense to come over here if you will be earning money and will be immediately involved in activities. Thus, I recommend simply looking for jobs in Ukraine or studying at Ukrainian universities, which can provide relatively inexpensive housing and lots of social interaction with other students. |
