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2021 CCRIF Interns

Department Of Disaster Management Hosts CCRIF Intern

The CCRIF Regional Internship Programme

CCRIF SPC is supporting a regional internship programme to provide career-related work experience for CARICOM and CCRIF Caribbean member country citizens that enhances the graduates’ academic training and provides a real world introduction to the graduates in the areas of disaster risk management, disaster risk financing, climate change, meteorology, risk transfer and/or risk modelling. CCRIF partners with national disaster management and meteorology offices and regional organizations involved in these areas.

The programme will have two modes of operation:

• On-site internships – working face-to-face with a national or regional organization
• A limited number of virtual internships – working remotely with a national or regional organization in the Caribbean

The CCRIF Regional Internship Programme has been designed to:

• Promote academic, career and/or personal development for the selected interns
• Provide interns with the opportunity to integrate their academic knowledge with practical application and skill development in the workplace
• Provide experiential learning thereby ensuring that interns gain vital skills and experience that they will be able to use throughout their professional career
• Enhance and/or expand the interns’ knowledge in  areas related to climate change, disaster risk management, and/or risk insurance among others
• Offer interns challenging assignments that benefit the host organization while providing tangible work experience for the interns
• Enable interns to sample potential areas of work specialization and explore the workplace culture of the assigned organization
• Include an intentional “learning plan” for interns that is structured within the work experience and includes learning objectives, observation, reflection, evaluation and assessment of interns
• Balance interns’ own learning goals with the specific work the organization needs completed
• Expose interns to professional role models or mentors who will provide them with support and provide an example of the behaviours expected in the workplace
• Enable interns to develop a solid work ethic and professional demeanour, as well as a commitment to ethical conduct and social responsibility

• Compilation/collation of data/information on various issues and making use of the data for empirical analysis
• Participation in planning and research-related activities
• Participation in field work and other similar research-related activities
• Writing up meeting/conference/seminar notes and reports
• Conducting literature reviews and web-based research
• Assisting with the organization of events
• Assisting with policy-influencing work
• Administrative tasks

• Linked academic theory to practice as it relates to their specific discipline
• Applied knowledge, skills, experience to a work environment
• Acquired new learning through challenging and meaningful activities and tasks
• Demonstrated professional skills in the workplace
• Built and maintained positive professional relationships
• Demonstrated awareness of community and/or organizational issues
• Identified, clarified and/or confirmed professional direction as it relates to their academic studies and future career path
• Developed self-understanding, self-discipline, maturity and confidence
• Developed strong networking/mentoring relationships

Deadline for applications:   June 15, 2024

HOST ORGANIZATIONS 2024

Interns will be placed at organizations based on the project requirements specified by the host organizations and the qualifications, experience and skills of the applicant.

Potential host organizations for 2024 may include, but are not limited to:

• National disaster management agencies in CCRIF Caribbean member countries
• National meteorological agencies in CCRIF Caribbean member countries
• Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD)
• Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA)
• Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH)
• Caribbean Meteorological Organization (CMO)
• Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM)
• CCRIF SPC
• Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission
• The University of the West Indies (UWI)

Interns will be required to participate in:

• An introductory online intern forum
• The course “Introduction to Disaster Risk Financing”, conducted by CCRIF SPC
• An online forum after completion of the internship

Referees must submit these reports to the following email address: internshipapplications@ccrif.org

• The subject line of the email must begin with the word “INTERNSHIP” and include the name of the internship applicant.
• The reference report must be in an attachment and the filename must include the name of the internship applicant.
• Emails will be accepted only from organizational email addresses – i.e. emails from google, hotmail, yahoo etc. addresses will not be accepted.
• The reference reports must be submitted no later than June 22, 2024 (note that this is after the internship application deadline).

Applicants must ensure that their referees submit the reports by the deadline.

Eligibility and Requirements

Interns must be citizens of CARICOM or CCRIF Caribbean member countries and must be graduates of a recognized university. They must have completed a course of study in any one of the following key areas of study: 

• Disaster risk management
• Disaster risk financing
• Environmental/natural resource management
• Meteorology
• Climate studies
• Civil engineering or civil with environmental engineering 
• Management studies with a focus on risk management
• Environmental economics
• Geography/geology
• Actuarial science
• Other related field

Candidates applying must have completed their first degree by the beginning date of the internship. 

Preference will be given to candidates who are recipients of a CCRIF-UWI Scholarship or a CCRIF Scholarship.

Candidates applying must have completed their first degree by the beginning date of the internship.

The internship will be for 2 months, with the understanding that the internship can be extended by mutual agreement between the host organization and intern at no cost to CCRIF SPC and with the agreement that the host organization will provide equivalent or higher weekly remuneration and accommodation to the intern for the period of the extension. This agreement, if put into force, will need to be communicated to CCRIF. The internship programme will be on a full-time basis. The timeframe for the internship will depend on the requirements of the host organization and will be between July and December 2023.

Interns will be expected to work five full days a week in the organization that has been selected for them, under the supervision of an experienced staff member. 

Interns will be provided with a monthly stipend by CCRIF SPC to cover living expenses.

Applicants who are placed outside their home country will need to provide proof of health/medical/travel insurance before arrangements can be made for the internship. Accepted interns placed outside their country will be provided with an allowance for accommodation and a return airline ticket between the home country and country of placement.

Interns will be required to participate in the online introductory intern forum and course “Introduction to Disaster Risk Financing”, conducted by CCRIF SPC.

A complete list of roles and responsibilities for CCRIF SPC, host organizations and interns can be found here.

CCRIF SPC Internship Report 2015-2018