Global Team Internship in Fiji
In partnership with over 70 International NGOs, Charities and Social Enterprises in the Pacific
At Think Pacific, we believe that an internship abroad should not only enhance your CV – It should develop your global perspectives, increase your knowledge, skills and confidence and help you discover your passions and purpose.
Our Global Team Internship (GTI) has been designed to help you bridge the gap between university and graduate employment in a globalized workforce by combining unique work-experience with cultural immersion and a team-based adventure.
During the placement, you will live with a team of fellow students in your own lovely, serviced house at the hub of the South Pacific and Fiji’s capital, Suva – whilst supporting our hand-picked network of Fijian NGO’s, social enterprises and charities to develop practical and sustainable solutions to current challenges.
Think Pacific’s GTI in Fiji is focused upon International Development. You will have the chance to interact and engage with a host of inspiring partners and learn about their work at grass roots level or international level to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The GTI is your opportunity to gain unique experience, with organisations driven by values and purpose.
- 1-month team based internship
- Based in Suva – Fiji’s Capital City, taste living in the hub of the Pacific
- Take in depth dive into UN SDGs and the Fiji National Development Plan.
- Engage with and respond to real-world projects for up to 3 x charities, social enterprises or international NGOs.
- Field Trips to understand the ‘behind the scenes’ of the sector.
- Up to 120+ hours of learning, mentoring and global work experience.
- Weekends to explore the beauty of Fiji.
- Project includes: Accommodation, 24/7 in-country support, food, domestic travel, unique internship projects, employability skills workshops and cultural and adventures activities.
- Dates: June, July or August 2024.
- Fees: £2095 / $3,845 AUD for 1-month in Fiji
- University scholarships available. Download Our Funding Guide
Project Discovery Session 
Monday’s 5pm [GMT – London] / 12pm [EST – New York] (Register Here)
Monday’s 12pm [AEST – Brisbane] (Register Here)
It’s so important that you learn about Fiji’s unique way of life and its goals for sustainable development before you dive into your internship projects. Gain understanding of the project needs and plan your SMART goals, alongside acclimatisation, team bonding and health and safety briefings.
In multi-discipline teams of 4-5 students, you will work on a case study or current challenge for your charity of NGO. Each week you will be set an ‘Action Challenge’, Often ‘big picture’, they include strategies for growth and development or how to consider difficult issues in the international development space. They may require ‘outside the box’ thinking, creativity and research to produce an effective response.
Cultural understanding context is central to this programme to expose you to different world views, values and attitudes. This is achieved through organised field visits to development organisations, a visit to a traditional community and historical sites of interest such as the government buildings and University of the South Pacific.
Experience the hub of the South Pacific as you live in the multicultural capital city of Fiji. Collaborate with international organisations that call Suva home. Spend your free time exploring the bustling markets, Thurston Gardens, Albert Park, Government House and the harbour. Work from co-working spaces, Fijian cafes and coffee shops and by the pool in your serviced house.
With our network of partners, from Fijian Government and High Commissions to University Lecturers and Social Enterprise Founders. You will have the chance to learn new skills and consider global perspectives as you develop your knowledge and understanding. We arrange speaker sessions from the third sector and international diplomacy to provide a breadth of professional learning opportunities.
We include organised activities every Saturday – think visits to waterfalls, beach trips and castaway islands. You will also have free time on Sunday to rest and refresh by the pool until we kickstart again on Monday. Explore Fiji at your leisure with Suva acting as a well connected base, from enjoying shopping like a local at the Saturday market to exploring the cafes or shops.
This programme is open to all and you don’t need any specific skills or prior experience. This is ideal for students passionate about international development, the charity sector, politics or international relations.
We provide a wide-range of insights and projects that are fascinating and inspiring. This programme is focused on developing your understanding of real world application of the UNSDGS and to test your ability to be agile, to solve problems and to consider big picture discourse in international development.
Live, work and learn with a group of like-minded students. Up to 20 students can join our project at a time and live within our serviced house in Suva. Most people join entirely on their own. You’ll depart with a new group of close friends and connections. Develop your communication skills as you work within different groups each week to explore charity sector challenges. Enjoy weekly activities and even travel together, as you explore Fiji further on your weekends.
Whether you’re taking a rewarding summer break or looking to enhance your skills beyond your studies, on our GTI you can:
- Experience; Gain unique Pacific perspectives of International Development and NGOs
- Contribution; Consider solutions to unique local and global challenges
- Challenge; Expand your comfort zone, throw yourself into diverse projects and themes
- Learn; Learn about a new culture through facinating field trips and excursions
- Skills; Develop professional skills and gain experience employers are looking for
You will need a positive mindset and a professional approach because you are collaborating and learning from real organisations that invest time and mentoring for students. Our guarantee is that this internship will boost your soft skills and confidence, whilst expanding your knowledge and context of development issues.
Here’s a look at the average week to paint a picture of how it is put together for you:
- Monday – Organisation Visit & Challenge Brief
- Tuesday – Group Work
- Wednesday – Field Trip or Excursion
- Thursday – Group Work
- Friday – Group Presentations to Partner and Stakeholders
- Saturday – Included Activity e.g castaway islands, beach or waterfall
- Sunday – Free day to explore Suva
When working on the Challenges with your group, you are free to utilise the house as a workspace, local coffee shops or a range of vibrant ‘co-working’ spaces which give you the opportunity to immerse yourself into a professional environment that reflect the new hybrid nature of employment. Whilst in these spaces, you will have the opportunity to network, enjoy refreshments and feel what it’s like to work in the Pacific.
After your orientation, preparation and team building with your fellow interns, it’s now time to start working on inspiring projects for fantastic local organisations.
Each week begins with a site visit to learn about the organisations vision, goals and challenges. Your task then is to work within a small group of 3-5 interns to tackle the brief and present back your ‘action project’ and ideas end of the week. For host organisations, this is an opportunity to gain unique international insights from creative thinking students, to prototype new concepts, begin new projects that have been limited by staff resources or gain fresh perspectives.
Think Pacific has a broad network of innovative social enterprises and charitable organisations who are inspiring real change and forward thinking approaches in Fiji. Our partners cover diverse fields, from women’s rights to micro-entrepreneurship to environmental protection. These are the organisations that will invite you to learn about their operations, their organisational wins and their organisational challenges.
We are privileged to work alongside and support over 70 amazing Fijian ministries, Charities, Businesses and NSOs. Within the Think Tank programme, students will hear from our partners who engage with the topics they will be reflecting upon, offering true and honest contextual information from organisations in each sector.
Each week you will be set an Action Project – A specific challenge proposed by the organisation. Your role in your team is to find, what you think to be, a suitable solution. Often ‘big picture’, always interesting, sometimes challenging.
Project questions focus upon research, development and solving some of the more complex issues within international relations, the charity sector, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There is often no right answer, or no current agreed response.
You’ll need to work collaboratively, consider cultural difference and learn quickly. Creative and critical thinking are the secret ingredients to producing the most effective outcomes. Each week culminates in you presenting your concepts to the partner for feedback and review.
Each week you will complete an ‘action project’ following our unique process:
1. Discover: Through unique experiential learning, field trips and speaker sessions, you’ll learn more about the organisation and sector.
2. Discuss: Engage with experts, meet the founders of social enterprises and the staff leading international development programmes.
3. Decide: In your group, decide your project and define your outcomes. We provide skills sessions to help you plan your project, your time and your outcomes.
4. Design: Create your project with your small team. Take the lead on where and when to work. Conduct research, brainstorming and be innovative.
5. Deliver: Present your project responses to the partners and members of TP community and showcase your achievements.
Our programs are built upon sustainable partnerships with organisations in Fiji and are designed under our formal agreements with Fijian Ministries.
As a registered local organisation, we invest in local staff, job creation and training; we add capacity to our partner organisations and expand the skills of Fijian university students and unemployed youth through global collaboration, courses and professional experience.
Through the Think Pacific Foundation, your programme fee will help support local Fijian charities and communities to achieve sustainable development goals under the guidance of Fiji’s National Development Plan.
1-Month Internship Dates 
🇫🇯🌴
3rd June – 30th June 2024 (Limited Spaces)
3rd July – 30th July 2024 (Limited Spaces)
4th August – 31st August 2024 (Limited Spaces)
16-Day Internship Dates 🇫🇯🌴
3rd December – 18th December 2024
17th January – 1st February 2025
This secures your place in the team and provides personal support from your project coordinator, access to our pre-departure portal, online preparation webinars and your Think Pacific t-shirt. Your registration fee is added to your project fees.
This covers the remaining costs of the placement. Many students receive bursaries from their universities to support their participation and/or fundraise for their program fees. It’s up to you whether you fundraise or not but your project fee is due 60 days before the project begins.
We pride ourselves on the delivery of a safe, structured and personally supported experience. Our philosophy is to provide a high-quality and exceptionally well-structured international placement that gives you a once-in-a-lifetime experience, whilst contributing to sustainable development.
Over 1/3 of your fee supports our international charity, the Think Pacific Foundation and project fees are distributed to support charities and initiatives on the ground in Fiji, including partners that you work with.
| Currency | £GBP | $AUD |
|---|---|---|
| Registration Fee | 195 | 345 |
| 1-Month Programme Fee | 1900 | 3500 |
| 16-Day Programme Fee | 1400 | 2550 |
Think Pacific works in partnership with many universities across the world to support student mobility and employability. There are scholarships and grants available for students from individual university departments and/or governments in several countries.
Students can apply for scholarships and bursaries to join our projects in Fiji. To find out if there’s funding available at your university or in your areas, please email info@thinkpacific.com.
What’s Included:
- Airport welcome and transfer to briefing
- 2 night resort briefing, including all meals
- Accommodation in our central serviced house in Suva, which is modern and comfortable. 7 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, split across 3 floors. Rooms are designed with single or bunk beds in spacious rooms and shared bathrooms.
- All in-country travel, except for optional Sunday travel
- Breakfast and evening meal included from Monday – Friday across your 4-week project, providing at the house. (please note, lunch is not included except for briefing and de-brief, and meals on Saturday and Sunday are not included).
- Guest speakers and workshop sessions
- Arrangement of organisation site visits and co-working spaces
- Guided activities including beach visit, castaway island day trip and visit to Colo-I-Suva national heritage and natural pools.
- Think Pacific local and international staff team co-ordinating all daily group activities and providing 24/7 support.
- In-country manager, Project Managers and UK team providing planning, risk assessment and 24-hour backup support.
- All bus or taxi transfers to your placements or workshops each day
- Comprehensive online portal & personal volunteer project planning resources.
What’s Not Included:
The following costs are not inclusive. However, Think Pacific provides comprehensive and personalised support to assist:
- Flights: Budget approximately £1000– £1400
- Insurance: Budget approximately £100- £200. Think Pacific can advise and provide details for example policies.
- Visa: Approximately £0
- Spending Money: Budget approximately £100 – £150 per week for lunches, weekend meals out & additional drinks or items as required.
- Vaccinations: We recommend Typhoid and Hepatitis A. Budget approximately £50 (However, vaccines can be free for most students). We advise you check with a medical professional for any specific vaccines you may require.
Apply for university funding to cover flights and insurance.
Think Pacific team mentors co-ordinate the entire project and are available 24/7 for student support. Our biggest piece of advice for students is to not hesitate to speak to our team leaders if they have any questions about health and safety.
During orientation, students are given guidelines to ensure they stay safe in Fiji. For example, students should always stay in pairs at least and should keep their accommodation address written down and with them at all times. The guidelines also include important day-to-day advice such as where it is safe to withdraw money from local ATM machines etc.
Pre-departure briefings take place pre-departure (online webinars) and in-country to prepare you alongside our comprehensive pre-departure portal.
Accommodation
During your GTI Fiji experience, you will be based in Suva and living in the “Think Pacific House.” This is a 7 bedroom set up with modern dormitory design and shared living spaces… You will be living alongside your fellow teammates.
Here, you will have a lot of independence with your team to explore what Suva has to offer and truly get a taste of what it feels like to live and work in the capital of the South Pacific.
During your weekends, you may choose to stay in the house in Suva or go exploring elsewhere in Fiji, the option is there and the choice is yours.
The house itself will be cleaned regularly, has security on site, features air conditioning and WIFI is available.
Outside of staying in Suva, you will be based in a resort for your briefing period and R&R period, and you will take part in a village homestay during the community immersion element of the programme.
During your work period, there is plenty of space in the house to complete work, or you may choose to venture out and work in popular cafes, co-working spaces, and no odd days we may hire space at the University of the South Pacific for you to utilise should you wish.
Food
During any period staying outside of Suva, all meals are included (briefing, community immersion, final night). When in Suva, breakfast and dinner is included and will be available at set times in the house should you choose to have it.
Otherwise, you have freedom to choose what you would like… eating out in Fiji is comparatively cheaper than what most of our participants are used to and there is a good range of options in Suva.
Aside from the components built into your project itinerary, the day-to-day will likely be where you gain the richest experiences and no-doubt some of the most profound take-aways from the programme. If not taking part in a specific trip whilst on the project, your base and your home will be Fiji’s capital city, Suva. Suva is the hub and base for all major business, NGO and governmental activity in the Fiji and the South Pacific. You will have an insight of what it feels like to live in a foreign city, to adapt to a new environment and have independence to make the most of what the small but thriving island city has to offer.
Think Pacific provides comprehensive support to universities as required. Universities are provided with a dedicated and experienced director to oversee the entire program from start to return with specific areas of responsibility designated from the outset. Our services with the programme fee include
- Full Promotion of programme including webinars or presentations and content
- Management of all applications and creation of custom application pages
- Careful communication with all enquiries
- Pre-departure support and live zoom sessions
- Visa entry requirements
- Pre-departure Portal – a comprehensive portal for all travel essentials and latest advice for flights, insurance and kit list, vaccinations and more.
- Pre-Departure Hub – Our own pre-departure group for live enquiries, chat and student networking, available to download as an App.
- Live seminars on cultural awareness, cross-cultural and in-country preparation
- Global Skills – Our online portal with courses on career development.
