An internship in Spain is a fantastic opportunity: it’s not far from home, there are direct flights every day from most French airports, and you can improve your Spanish while enjoying the Spanish chill-out lifestyle! Spain is one of International Horizons’ major destinations: we offer it for individual placements abroad for students, but also for groups, via ERASMUS mobility! For groups, we only offer the city of Cartagena, a few kilometres from Alicante in the Murcia region. We’ve been open since 2021, and it’s a huge success, thanks to Laura (pronounced in Spanish!). For individuals, there’s no limit to Spain: Barcelona, Cadiz, Murcia, Madrid, Alicante, Granada, Ibiza, etc. So many cities to do your work placement abroad! We know Spain really well in the team: between New Year’s Eve in Cartagena, an ERASMUS university exchange in Valencia, a work placement abroad in Puerto San Miguel on Ibiza, and lots of trips with friends, the team and family. You can do it all in Spain on a work placement abroad!
Budget for your work placement in Spain
Even though the country is one of the world’s largest economies – in 13th place after all! – prices are relatively affordable. Barcelona and Madrid, for example, will be much more expensive than Malaga, Cadiz or San Sebastian. Overall, excluding Barcelona and the Spanish islands, you should expect to pay between €350 and €450 to rent a studio flat or a shared room in an ERASMUS + flat. Every year, Spain welcomes thousands of young people from all over the European Union for academic exchanges or work placements abroad, so landlords are well aware of this, and some have specialised in shared flats for ERASMUS students: a good way of dividing the costs, and of learning English, as this is generally the language spoken in the flat! This way, you can improve your Spanish during the day and your English in the evening! The other option, which isn’t as expensive, is to stay with a host family on a full-board basis: you’ll need to pay between €700 and €900 a month, and that includes everything from breakfast to dinner, internet access and running costs such as water, electricity, etc. This is also what you’ll find in a host family. This is what Kylian did during his ERASMUS in Cartagena, and what Chloé did during her academic exchange in Valencia. Both can be found on our website in the blog section! Spain also boasts a profiled gastronomy at very low prices! Avoid the tourist food halls of Madrid – you can still go there for the culture, but don’t spend all your money there! -Instead, wander the streets looking for nice little restaurants. Spain offers a varied and very inexpensive gastronomy, and the same goes for supermarket shopping: on a budget of €50 a week, you’ll have more than enough to eat and drink! Make sure you’ve got enough for a sangria and some tapas on the terrace: after all, it’s cultural ?? If you want to find out a bit more about Spanish gastronomy, check out our blog on the subject. Access to culture is also very inexpensive, so you can indulge yourself in the restaurant, but also in your brain: on a tight budget, you can still enjoy most of the museums and activities! In fact, you can visit most national museums free of charge on presentation of your identity card – for under-26s. Spain is also a party culture: whether religious or secular, there are many, many street parties; so many that we’ve put them in the diary to avoid getting caught out by bridges and public holidays ah ah. These festivities and processions are completely free, so all you have to do is stroll down the street and enjoy the atmosphere, the kind you only find in Spain! This year we did New Year’s Day there: so you start the night before with a big open-air party, DJ, ultra-festive and family-friendly atmosphere, and you do it again the next day with the traditional eating of grapes; one grape per shot before midnight! Honestly, we had a blast, and it convinced us to stay in Cartagena, despite the fact that the airport is in Alicante, and not even in the city: you can do everything on foot, the people are very friendly, the atmosphere is good-natured, it’s safe… we love it. All in all, Spain offers an incredible nightlife, the chance to learn two languages at the same time, depending on your accommodation and your work placement in Spain, and the chance to party hard!
What you need to know
In Spain, you speak Castilian or Catalan, not Spanish. The locals don’t take kindly to this amalgam, so you might as well bear it in mind. A few facts about Spain: with the 2008 crisis, a lot of young adults are living with their families. Another anecdotal fact: just a stone’s throw from Spain, you can also learn English. Yes, for that, head for Gibraltar! Or even the Balearic Islands: Ibiza and Majorca! I’ve never spoken as much English (or German, for that matter!) as I did in Ibiza. To choose the city where you want to do your work placement abroad in Spain, you need to find out about each of the cities, because they all offer very different opportunities. Ibiza, for example, isn’t just about the big parties at Amnesia or Pacha – even though I really enjoyed it, and I’d encourage you to read the dedicated feedback, which might give you some good electro sounds if you’re a fan! – It’s also about hiking through immense pine forests, fine sandy beaches and shady little coves. Most towns offer more of a family atmosphere than big parties. Then there’s Madrid, the capital, which I find more authentic than Barcelona, which has become more of a world city than a Spanish one, with so many foreigners living there, rather like Paris. To enjoy the sun and water sports: it’s best to go to Vigo in northern Portugal (another International Horizons destination!) for surfing, or Cadiz for lazing around, or Alicante, Cartagena, Valencia for sailing… There are as many possibilities as there are cities in Spain! When it comes to gastronomy, on the other hand, you’ll have a ball everywhere: from the world-famous tradition of tapas to fresh fruit and all the fish recipes! Spain has something for everyone. The cuisine is not renowned for its refinement, but for its popular side, a generous cuisine using fresh produce, to be enjoyed on the terrace with a vino tinto! Spain also has some great vineyards all over the country: Rioja, Altamar, Jerez, Priorat… there’s as much flavour to be discovered on your plate as in your glass!
Your work placement in Spain
An internship in Spain gives you the chance to do so many different things, as the country has such a varied economy, depending on the city you choose for your internship abroad. The country offers a wide range of opportunities, so there’s something for everyone and a rewarding international experience. To refine your internship abroad project, contact us – it’s free and there’s no obligation. We can target the cities to find the placement of your choice in the land of Cervantes! Depending on your profile, our team will be able to help you find the ideal placement abroad: you need to take into account your wishes, of course, but also the expectations of your school and your language level. Someone who has difficulty expressing themselves in Spanish won’t be able to take on as many varied assignments as someone who speaks it fluently! The assignments you can be given as part of your work placement abroad will depend on your level of study, but above all on your language skills and your ability to work in the target language! Do you want to do a work placement in Spain? Prepare your CV in Spanish. Contact us so that we can work on your project and get you the best possible experience in Spain. We search for work placements on a case-by-case basis, so we only offer tailor-made solutions! So, if you’re looking for an internship that will enhance your skills, get in touch with us! And just for fun, check out Clara’s testimonial about her work placement in Spain with International Horizons. For more general questions, visit the International Horizons Internships Abroad FAQ.