Enjoy an incredibly rewarding internship experience in the healthcare setting of your choice. Our public healthcare internships provide you with the opportunity to expand your knowledge and learn from highly experienced specialists, while contributing tremendously to the Public Health system of South Africa.
The best public health 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.
Our public health programme enables interns to actively engage with the healthcare system in South Africa, explore their interests and future career paths, work alongside inspiring professionals and make a positive and long lasting impact in the lives of vulnerable members of local communities.
There are many socio-economic factors which contribute to disparities in access to healthcare and education in South Africa. To fill in the gaps, many organizations have been established around Cape Town which aim to empower communities with knowledge, resources and better access to healthcare.
We provide opportunities in a variety of settings including; community clinics, hospital foundations, NGO’s, schools and policy institutes. These places can accommodate interns who are interested in; health education, disease prevention, nutrition, child life, and other related fields.
Read on for a full overview of the best public health 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.
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 public health 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.
Excellent communication skills Previous research experience would be beneficial Confident speaking on the phone Creative thinker
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.
There are a lot of career opportunities for those with a public health degree, as work in this sector is very rewarding. As public health is a broad term, there are many niches within this field. Important skills to obtain are in research, analytics and problem-solving.
There are many career routes one can take with a qualification in public health. A few options could be; occupational health specialists, public health educators, community workers, nutritionists, policy advisors, public healthcare doctors or nurses, epidemiologists, consultants and others.
A public health internship can differ depending on the organization one is working with. Possibilities include, community health clinics, community development projects, nonprofits, education centers and more.
There are a lot of different possible careers in science. Some of the highest-earning positions in science include; physicists, astronomers, pharmacists, geoscientists, biochemists and medical scientists. Chemical and nuclear engineering are also lucrative career paths.
Research internships often entail a lot of independent work, although asking questions, being proactive, and making the most of your resources are key to a successful research internship. Medical internships or those in the field of biology are often heavily focused on research and interns will either be asked to complete their own project or contribute to ongoing research. These types of internships will also involve laboratory work. Research is also often integral to internships in human rights, law and public policy.
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.