The Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday vowed to strictly screen schools requesting subsidies to send students abroad for internships after a local university was accused of allowing its students to work illegally during their stint abroad.
The Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations said the ministry would also enhance communication with schools that receive the subsidies to guarantee the rights of students sent abroad for internships.
The ministry made the announcement in a press release after the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) reported on Tuesday that many of the students sent by the National Chin-Yi University of Technology in Taichung on internships in Australia last year ended up working parttime at small restaurants or farms in remote areas for a year.
The story quoted an overseas Taiwanese in Australia as saying the school claimed that the 31 students would be able to do internships at three big hotels and restaurants in Australia for a year after they finished a 16-week language course. However, many of the students were not accepted as interns in Australian companies because of their limited English, the overseas Taiwanese said.
The person said the university then allowed the students to seek part-time jobs at Chinese restaurants after they completed the 16-week language course, adding that some students even got into serious disputes with their employers.
In response, the university said the students from the Department of Leisure Industry Management were required to go through 17 weeks of training before they began their internship at restaurants, farms, hotels and coffee shops.
All of the students had completed 72 hours of training to enhance their English ability and scored a minimum of 350 points on the Test of English for International Communication before going abroad, the school said.
“The school received NT$1.14 million [US$34,000] in subsidies from the MOE for the internship program in Australia. All of the money was spent on the plane tickets and subsidizing the living expenses of the students,” said Wang Meng-hui (王孟輝), director of the university's Office of International Affairs.
Wang said the students had responded positively to the internship program and that they had improved their English proficiency and become more independent.
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