Enjoy an incredibly rewarding internship experience in a healthcare setting of your choice. Our medical and public healthcare internships provide you with the opportunity to expand your knowledge, gain exposure to diverse medical cases, learn from highly experienced specialists and contribute tremendously to the Public Health system of South Africa.
The best medical internships in Cape Town? We think so. We pride ourselves on delivering customised internship placements and on the ground support that offer life-changing, valuable professional experiences.
In order to pursue any career in the field of healthcare, it is necessary to gain some kind of hands on work experience. However, completing an internship in a healthcare setting in the developing world, is not just beneficial for your career, but can also be a life-changing experience.
The challenges which the healthcare system in South Africa faces on a daily basis provide an unparalleled learning environment for pre-medical students, medical students and qualified professionals. As in most Government hospitals in the country, the lack of equipment and human resources, along with the high incidence of infectious diseases, means that interns will have the chance to work alongside specialists with very different skills and responsibilities. Our healthcare programme in Cape Town provides an ideal opportunity to expand your knowledge, immerse yourself in and contribute tremendously to the healthcare system of South Africa.
We have opportunities in a variety of settings: hospitals, community clinics, research establishments, children’s homes, and NGO’s.
These places can accommodate interns who are interested in; clinical observation, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and research.
Read on for a full overview of the best medical internships in Africa.
Here's what you can expect from the programme in a nutshell!
Of course, the list is much longer - but these are the skills our intern alumni reported back that they grew in the most!
We managed to grab some detailed interviews from previous interns on this programme, you can click on them below.
I was able to put a smile on a sick's child face and that made all the difference. I made connections with these children and could see their face light up every time I stepped into the wards to spend time with them.
What might your programme in this career field look like? Here's how it has typically shaped up for our alumni!
Arrival & orientation. Introduction to Cape Town, your accommodation and your internship host organisation and colleagues.
Get stuck into your medical internship placement and establish yourself with your organisation. Come to our free social events.
Enjoy a great work-life balance, getting out and about to see the sites alongside working hard on your internship.
Pick up more responsibility in your internship as you prove your capability. Enjoy regular activities in Cape Town outside of work. Come to another social!
Now you're flying (metaphorically) at work, you'll be more and more autonomous. Expect to pick up even more challenges!
Internship is going swimmingly, now go and do something crazy like swimming with some great white sharks or abseiling off of a mountain.
Regularly enjoy the benefits of Cape Town and at work, gather materials needed for portfolio (e.g. references from us and provider).
Putting the finishing touches to your internship and gathering feedback from us and your internship provider for use in your academic / career portfolio. Finalise paperwork for university (if needed)
Here's what others said when they applied. Some of these people came just for this career area, some mixed it with other career fields too...
What makes our internship programmes a worthwhile investment? Here's a swift overview of what you can expect!
We have two primary programmes to suit your needs. In some instances we also offer virtual placements.
You can come for as long as you need without paying any extra fees.You'll receive the same level of support.
We are 100% on your side. We guarantee every aspect of your trip with unrivalled promises.
Need to focus on a precise niche or two? No problem! Your programme can focus on your specialist areas.
We'll help you engage with the culture and personal benefits of being in a foreign country.
Save on travel and accommodation costs, pay a far lower fee. All while building your professional network.
We will handle all aspects of academic accreditation, including direct liaison with your tutors and academic staff.
We will write full reference letters for your placement(s) to optimise future employers' first impression of you.
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Here are some current or recent internship job opportunities in this career area. We do not publish all openings - so please contact us to hear about others.
Get in touch.
We have worked very hard to streamline our process to make your experience easy, fun and highly rewarding personally and professionally. Flick through the steps below, or read about our process in more detail.
Getting your dream internship all starts with you saying hello! Just pop your details into our enquiry form and we'll reach out to schedule a conversation with you that we call a 'discovery call'.
In your discovery call, you can ask us any questions you still have. We'll talk about your options in the career fields you've told us you're interested in to help you imagine your placement and decide if our service is right for you.
If everything sounds good to you, complete your application to put into words your dream programme. This forms the basis of the 'design' of your customised placement and will be the primary framework against which we validate potentially suitable opportunities.
We maintain a large and varied network of the best organisations in Cape Town. We will identify the best potential fits for your programme goals and preferences and reach out on your behalf to assess those organisations for suitability (learn about their current projects and initiatives).
Once you've confirmed which placement offer you prefer, we'll start helping you plan the rest of your trip. We'll book your accommodation, help with your travel arrangements and provide extensive advice and information on how to get ready for your time in Cape Town. Your Bridging Gaps mentor will be on hand to make sure you're fully prepared for your placement.
Finally, every member of our team will move mountains to make sure you get what you came for and MORE! It's essential to us that you're safe, you're learning and growing in confidence and developing the most important skills for your future career.
Our programme fees are shown below, for a full description of our service offering please click to view the programme or a side-to-side comparison.
Comprehensive support
Visa & travel assist
Accommodation assistance
Social events & excursions
... and lots more
We've answered some specific questions about this internship programme below.
The demand for different medical professionals varies depending on the country. Generally, the need for nurses continues to grow each year. Medical assistants are also needed in a wide variety of different healthcare settings.
Cape Town offers a large range of internship opportunities for medical students including world-class hospitals, public health organizations, community clinics, research foundations and more.
An intern is usually one who is still studying, whereas a resident may have recently received their credentials and are seeking required clinical hours.
If you are a medical student, you will not need to study in addition to your courses in order to participate in an internship. Most organizations recognize that interns are typically students or recent graduates looking to learn and gain valuable experience. The organisation will take this into account when designating proposed roles and responsibilities.
Since South African law prohibits any foreign national doing any form of paid work in the country without a valid working visa, all the opportunities we provide are unpaid. It is incredibly difficult to obtain a working visa for South Africa because you have to be sponsored by an organisation before you even arrive in the country.
Send it to us below and we will answer ASAP.
Hi, we're really sorry but we are no longer offering internship opportunities in this career field. However, we wish you the best with your search.
