1

I was writing a letter to a colleague and noticed that when I switch my spellchecker to "English (UK)" the word "internship" is highlighted.

I mostly communicate with US and Indian colleagues, but this guy is a Brit, so using a proper British word would make sense. What is it? "Training"? "Apprenticeship"? Something else?

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    Since neither of the answers mention it, I'll add it here: "training" is non-specific and could be done as part of a job, internship/work experience, apprenticeship, or a number of other sitations. An apprenticeship usually involves study (often in a college) as well as working, and an apprentice will usually be paid a wage. Internships/work experience may be unpaid.
    – LMS
    Mar 20, 2017 at 20:16

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

Work Experience would be the equivalent UK term for internship.

Quoting from Wikipedia's page on work experience:

Work experience is any experience that a person gains while working in a specific field or occupation, but the expression is widely used to mean a type of volunteer work that is commonly intended for young people — often students — to get a feel for professional working environments. The American equivalent term is internship.

Improve this answer
3
  • I was thinking of a sentence like "We have a 6 months internship position open, do you know any students who may be interested?". Would work experience sound right in there?
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Mar 17, 2017 at 8:02
  • 1
    Maybe slightly rephrased as: "We have an opening for 6 months of work experience, do you ..."
    – Phylyp
    Mar 17, 2017 at 8:04
  • 2
    Given your communications are cross-cultural, it might be prudent to use both phrases in your letter, to avoid confusion (e.g. in the case your British colleague forwards it to an American). Something like: We have an opening for 6 months of work experience (i.e. internship), do you..."
    – Phylyp
    Mar 17, 2017 at 8:09
7

Internship is perfectly understood in British English and its use would not lead to any confusion. Whilst the term work experience is also used as Phylyp suggests there would be no misunderstanding in using in internship.

For example this is a UK Government Webpage to help new and recent graduates find internships in British organisations.

Improve this answer
1
  • Thanks, I know I can just use the US word (I could write the whole letter in US English for that matter). I was just curious about the British word I didn't know. But the fact that internship is used in UK officially is indeed relevant here.
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Mar 20, 2017 at 9:03

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .