FAQ

You have a question? Our FAQ section gives you the answer! We have collected questions many KOPRA users are curious about. Hopefully you will find an answer right here. In case you do not find an appropriate answer to your question, please do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail!

 

Some of the KOPRA pages are available in English only, even if I choose an other language. Why don"t you provide all pages in every of the six languages you offer?

You"re right, English is the dominant language of www.kopra.org. We decided to offer some of our pages in English only when we worked on the new website. Especially those pages we need to update often are written mostly in English to reduce our daily workload and to minimize the error rate. Anyway, we try to offer as many content as possible in six languages for your convenience.

KOPRA was recommended to me by a good friend. I am looking for an adequate internship in the media sector. Could you assist me with finding a suitable internship with a company or agency?

www.kopra.org bundles currently open internships and jobs in the countries of East Asia and Germany by contacting companies. Furthermore, open positions are put online by companies registered at KOPRA on their own, therefore free positions might change hourly or daily. After registration you can browse our database in full text and directly apply at the companies via the online form.

As a Premium Member, you are put in the position to receive a daily newsletter with the latest internship and job offers. Additionally, you can use a bunch of helpful services which even improve your application opportunities.

KOPRA is a non-profit organization with mostly free services due to the financial support granted by Mercator foundation. Hence we can not offer individual procurement of internship or job offers into specific companies or organizations at the moment.

I’m interested in an internship within the event management sector. Is it possible for you to contact relevant companies in Greater Tokyo? I’ll gladly send you my CV for further use.

KOPRA offers at www.kopra.org an internship database for internships in Japan as well. The placed offers are acquired by us. Having registered at KOPRA free of charge, you can apply to every of the internships on your own. Due to capacity reasons we don’t offer an individual procurement like talking to companies to present your CV.

As a free of charge registered KOPRA member you may create your own profile. Interested companies are regularly checking these profiles for suitable applicants. You can even deposit your CV. As a Premium Member your profile will be preferentially displayed: if a company searches for a suitable candidate and your profile matches the search criteria, you’ll be displayed on top of the appropriated candidates ranking.

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I’m looking for an internship for the next two months in Greater Shanghai. I’d like to work just a couple of days per week. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a suitable internship yet. Could you assist me?

We are sorry to tell you that we can’t assist you with your request. Our offered internships and jobs depend on the demands of the respective companies. In case that no company looks for an intern in a specific period, we can’t offer any positions. Sometimes internships are offered on short notice. Therefore, we suggest you to regularly check our internship database.

I’d like to go to India for an internship within the tourism sector. I haven’t found an appropriate offer yet. Does KOPRA generally have internship offers in India or do you provide individual internships there?

KOPRA does not provide an individual internship or job placement service. We acquire vacant positions from companies and put these offers online. Students and graduates can search our database free of charge and apply for appropriate open positions.

Our main target regions for offers are East Asia and Germany. The acquisition of internship and job offers in India is currently being built up. We therefore cannot support you with providing a specific internship. We recommend you to regularly check for new offers in our internship database.

I’d like to do an internship in Japan next summer, but I have already found interesting offers now. Do I have to decide myself now and apply for them using www.kopra.org or is there still time left to wait for other alternative offers? How is this normally done?

Your question can"t be answered generally. If a company needs interns within a fixed period of time this will be stated in the respective internship offer. Once you have found an internship with an appropriate time span apply for it. In case a company has placed a constant offer there is normally no fixed starting point for the internship. You should then specify the desired starting point and the duration in your application and apply at least 3-4 months prior to this starting date.

Some internship offers may be on a very short notice. We therefore recommend you to search our database regularly. By becoming a KOPRA Premium Member, you will receive our daily newsletter with the latest offers and be eligible to use many more interesting Premium Features for a fee of XX/EUR per year.

I’ve spent a semester abroad in China last year. Now I’d like to go back there for an internship in Beijing. I’m curious whether there are companies which offer economics related internships in China and which are not registered at KOPRA?

KOPRA’s works in a way that all companies who want to offer internships or jobs and know about our service, use KOPRA to place their offers. KOPRA is a popular online platform for jobs and internships related to East Asia; however, some companies might not want to use the KOPRA service or have their own channels to search for applicants. We therefore cannot exclude that there are companies offering such internships but we assure our users that all offers known to us are put online directly.

I’m studying business in the ninth semester and will graduate soon. Then, I’d like to do an internship in Japan to improve my Japanese language skills. I’ve been learning Japanese for three semesters, hence I know the basics. Do you think this knowledge is sufficient?

In the first place it will be important which level of language skills are requested by the company placing the respective offer. You should note that basic language skills might not suffice for an internship that requires advanced language skills. In case you are matching all other requirements perfectly it might make sense to ask the company whether your language skills might suffice nevertheless.

Generally, it is very helpful to have a basic command of the local language used in the host nation while living abroad. Many internship or job offers at www.kopra.org require specific language test certificates as a proof for a intermediate or advanced knowledge. You may attain these certificates in your home country before going abroad.

I’ve lost my password of my KOPRA account and forgotten my user name. Could you help me, please?

If you lost your password or user name, you don’t need to worry! Just refer to this link: index.php?site_id=7. Here you can request a new password or your user name by typing in your e-mail address.

Is it necessary to register at KOPRA if I would like to apply for an offer? Is this registration really free of charge?

Do you offer a ready-made application form on www.kopra.org or is it recommended to send individually customized applications to each company? Are there certain documents or certificates that need to be sent with every application?

No, KOPRA in principle does not offer any ready-made application form. If a company asks for a specific precast form, the internship or job offer contains a reference to it. In general, you should apply with an individual cover letter and your CV. It might be reasonable to submit your essential certificates. Use the opportunity to customize your application individually and tailored to the offer to advise the company of your application.

Please don’t forget: your job opportunities will improve remarkably with a well-written cover letter and a well-designed CV. If you use our KOPRA online form you can upload several attachments to send your cover letter and your CV. Please use pdf documents only.

I’d like to become a Premium Member at KOPRA to use the various additional Premium Features. Please tell me: how can I register and what is the present price of an annual Premium Membership?

The Premium Membership at KOPRA offers you a lot of advantages: Once a company searches for a profile matching yours your profile will always be on top of the search results - this boosts your chances to receive interesting offers! Furthermore, you are informed about the latest internship and job offers at the very day they are online - with the KOPRA Mailing list. You’ll be up to date at all times!

Additionally, the convenient KOPRA watch list will be at your disposal. You can use the watch list to keep track of exceedingly interesting internships and jobs. Keep always track of things! If you’re looking for helpful tips to improve your application material or would like to learn more about the country you want to go, accommodation costs, visa requirements, and cheap flights, the exclusive Resource Center will be a wonderful reference.

Please register via this link: http://web21.delta155.server4you.de/index.php?site_id=23. The Premium Membership for applicants costs just 13 EUR per year.

As I have just finished my studies I am asking you for deleting my CV data and my profile as soon as possible.

Please use your user name and password to log into the edit area Member Area! http://web21.delta155.server4you.de/index.php?site_id=25&lang_id=0. There choose "MY PROFILE" and uncheck the options "I want the following data to be visible for companies in the KOPRA "applicants" sections” and "Yes, I want my profile to be displayed in the KOPRA applicants database”. Like this, you can preserve your user data and account for future searches. In case you would like to completely delete your profile, please kindly send us your user ID.

I’ve found an internship by using KOPRA. Now I’d like to share my experiences with you. Where can I do so?

We’re glad to hear that you are willing to share your experiences with the other users of www.kopra.org! For documenting your experiences, please use our convenient online form: http://web21.delta155.server4you.de/index.php?site_id=48.

Do German companies in Asia prefer German or Asian candidates as new interns?

It really depends on the company"s policy- some prefer recruiting interns in Germany and then send them to Asia, while others hire personnel in the Asian country their branch is located in. This is because some companies may require a native-like proficiency of German, good working knowledge of English and maybe some fair level of the specific Asian language (e.g., Korean Germans tend to be tri-lingual in most cases) while some companies located in Asia prefer to hire those with Chinese, Japanese or Korean native proficiency to overcome the language barriers in the foreign company. So generally there is no evident preference – it depends completely on the requirements specified by the company.

The remuneration for internships seems to be very diverse. Is there an average amount that companies in Asia usually pay their interns?

For the German companies with operations based in Asia, the pay range would not differ much from the usual rate for Asians in their home country. We urge students to be open minded; compared to real work salaries internship remuneration is negligible since the point of internships is for inexperienced students to experience work at first-hand and learn new skills before actually moving out into the real working society. It is difficult to declare an average remuneration (please take note that any generalization would make it very vague and unreliable).

Some multi-national companies might pay up to 600 EUR per month but the other companies offering paid internships generally provide a stipend of 300-600 EUR. Some internships are unpaid; however, the companies might offer other assistance like free lodging, free meals and flight costs.

Thus, we usually encourage students to be more open-minded towards unpaid internships especially in the case of fresh undergraduates/graduates with no prior work experience and/or not equipped with sufficient professional/computer/language skills.