Internships in Madrid - Adelante Abroad

Adelante provided me an incredible experience. This past summer I went to Madrid for the months June and July. It was my first time in Europe so naturally I was nervous, but the staff helped with all my questions and concerns. I had a ride when I got to the airport. They set me up with a beautiful apartment was in the city with a view and right next to the metro station. I absolutely loved the Spanish Class at Eureka. Ángel is literally and angel! He helped me so much and made my transition to Madrid to smooth! I learned so much from my internship and I got to meet so many amazing people from all over the world. Highly recommend!

This experience proves that even if you are an experienced professional, there is ALWAYS something new you can learn in life. My thanks to IberEnglish, my manager was incredible, their environment is wonderful, I felt comfortable, supported and safe there. Help was always there for me, both by Adelante and Eureka, whenever I needed it. The people in Spain are so warm, so kind and so generous. Truly, I know for a fact that I can be very happy living in Madrid, which is why I would love to come back. I need to work o my Spanish! Overall, a wonderful experience, especially with so much uncertainty due to COVID, going to Spain was the best decision I ever made.

This was a great experience for me. Adelante made things fairly straightforward when it came to applying to the program and getting set up with an internship in Madrid. The staff at Eureka Academia de Español was also wonderful and helped a lot in my time abroad. I thought the language classes there were extremely helpful. There was a learning curve with the internship, both for me and my employer, because they had never had an intern before. So, it took a few weeks to really figure out my role in the company. But, in about a month, I really felt like I was fitting in at Amapola Biocosmetics and was contributing to the company. My Spanish improved a ton in the 5 months I was there. I loved that there was always something to do in Madrid. There was always a new museum, bar, restaurant, cafe, club, or street to see. I met good friends in and out of the program. I loved my little apartment, which was right in the center of the city, so it made it easy to get everywhere. And I was able to travel around Spain as well on the weekends. I even made it to Morocco one weekend! A wonderful opportunity, and one that I will not forget anytime soon. I was lucky that I was able to complete my program before Coronavirus shut everything down!

Adelante provided me with the resources to grow both personally and learn more about my field in a different country. Adelante staff prior to departure were quite helpful and answered all my questions as best as possible. Unfortunately, they only gave me information about my internship about two weeks prior to leaving and I would have preferred if they had more information earlier on to ease my mind. However, throughout my time in Spain, the staff in the US regularly checked in with me via email and sent me resources to better my transition. The two week course at Eureka was great and very laid-back; the teachers are fun and helpful and all of them actually want to teach, so it is a great way to review your Spanish before working. As a pharmacy student, I was given a position at one of the many farmacias in Spain and helped patients find the best medication for their illness, rang out patients, processed orders, and completed paperwork for the pharmacy. While the work got repetitive, I still learned a lot (especially about the Spanish healthcare system) because my coworkers were kind, interested in helping me improve and learn as a student, and explained anything I did not understand. I would suggest this program for those who are at least at a low intermediate level of Spanish because I was spoken to only in Spanish at my position and I know many positions at Adelante that are very similar. While there were no issues to report at my job, I would have felt comfortable reaching out to any of the Adelante staff if I did have any problems because they made it clear that they were there to help me. Adelante does a great job with housing because of its location in the center of Madrid and because they find a solution to problems or maintenance issues relatively quickly, especially if you physically speak to Angel who is the director of the Eureka language school.

I spent 2 months in Madrid working in a LGBT public health office. My experience living in this beautiful city was phenomenal being that I was immersed in Spanish culture. The nightlife is amazing, as you'd imagine, and I made great friends both inside and outside the program. We loved visiting other Spanish cities as well as Portugal whenever we got the chance. I really enjoyed my time at the Spanish school as everyone was extremely supportive and I learned a lot in a short period of time. All my coworkers were also lovely and helped me improve my Spanish skills throughout my time there. I do feel that it is important to mention though that you should take the Spanish language skill required by adelante seriously. Some internships do require a higher level of speaking and if you are dishonest with adelante about your ability there isn't much they can do to help if your boss becomes dissatisfied. Additionally, I will say that my expectations were not fully met on the adelante side. My original desire was to work in a hospital or clinic and although the backup plan of public health was established over the phone and I agreed to it, I got the sense that the Plan B discussed became the default for myself and the other interns I spoke to. I believe I only met 2 interns that were fully satisfied with their work placement and received their Plan A. However, in this situation I believe you get what you pay for being that adelante is securing an internship for you even if its not ideal. To me and many of the others this didn't end up being a big issue as we grew to like our placements, but if youre passionate about working in one specific area to really build your resume, adelante may not be the right fit.
Conclusion: Adelante provided me with the opportunity to live and work in Madrid which was most definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I feel as if the internship placement could have been better, but being the most affordable program I found, I'm far from dissatisfied.

I shadowed a doctor in Madrid for around four months, and it was the most amazing time of my life. Adelante made the setup process extremely easy, and it was very affordable as well. They were very flexible and accommodating in setting up the perfect internship for me. My doctor was also amazing, and I learned much about respiratory and cardiovascular health while there. I also got a unique look into Medicine in a different culture than my own. The first two weeks of Spanish classes that Adelante provides was very helpful in getting me started. Overall a great experience thanks to Adelante, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a different experience than just taking classes abroad.

The people at Adelante regularly check in to make sure you are enjoying the program and are safe. They are there for whenever you need them and truly provide a great abroad experience.

The main reason why my experience was unique is due to the type of company I worked for and activities that I was able to perform. When I discovered that my university program required me to work for a full school year in a foreign country I was worried that I would have had to take part in one of those classic, mundane and monotonous 9-5 jobs which involved performing tasks while sat at a desk in front of a computer screen. This is basically the equivalent of suicide to someone like me who loves living his life outdoors performing sporting activities. Thanks to Adelante's program, however, I was able to find a football club in Madrid that allowed me to actively participate in their training sessions, as well as help out coaches in as many ways as possible during the sessions. My university accepted the program and I was able to spend these 7 months here about as well as I could have ever hoped for.

arrived in Madrid with a "guaranteed" internship in an Alzheimers lab for psychology. after two weeks in the Spanish school was told my level wasn't high enough as the internship was something that required near perfect fluency. no alternatives were then offered and three months of my life were wasted if not for me strengthening my Spanish further, had I gone just through their school which was amazing and actual responsible for everything that Adelante claims to actually do I would have paid only half of the cost. still waiting for my refund which the program seems to be mute on ... I guess sign contracts don't mean much to some companies... avoid at all costs unless you want some basic internship that provides you with no actual experience