Guidelines
Eligible Organizations
How does the program work?
Benefits
Eligibility Requirements
Taxability, Insurability, Pensionability
Eligible Organizations
- Canadian business or professional associations
- Canadian educational institutions
- Canadian non-governmental organizations
- Private Canadian companies
 How does the program work?
If you are an eligible organization, you can submit an internship proposal, which must follow the guidelines in CIDA's IYIP proposal guide. Once funding is confirmed, organizations select interns to meet their needs. Sponsor organizations must provide their interns with a supporting environment, both in Canada and overseas. Your continuing support will enable your interns to successfully complete their assignments, develop employable skills and seek post-internship employment.
Benefits
The benefits to your organization are many and wide-ranging. Young professionals will inject enthusiasm, knowledge, skills, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit into your organization, which can bring a new perspective to your international project team. The program will help you develop future employees and, at the same time, reduce your training and recruitment costs. Placing an intern in an overseas office or partner project will further strengthen your international partnerships and contribution to sustainable development. As well, your organization will gain greater recognition in international development as a contributor to Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy
Eligibility Requirements
Partner organizations must meet a number of requirements.
- Your organization cannot have a multi-year contribution agreement with CIDA for IYIP.
- Your organization must be legally registered in Canada and already support international projects or must have affiliations in CIDA’s eligible countries and territories.
- Your organization must be able to provide interns with at least a six-month professional work experience, including a minimum five-month assignment abroad. The work should complement and enhance the intern’s educational training.
- You must also be able to invest in the internship costs (in-kind and/or in cash).
- You must be able to reasonably guarantee the security of your interns and to help them find meaningful, career-related employment opportunities.
Please note that preference will be given to internships that are in line with CIDA's priorities.
A wide variety of professional sectors can be considered for internships, as long as they are within CIDA's mandate and offered to Canadian youth, who can be expected to benefit from an international internship in making the transition from school/unemployment to employment.
However, CIDA will not fund internships in the following sectors:
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT);
- Language training (i.e. teaching English or French as a second language);
- Nursing (if the internship is aimed exclusively at Canadian nurses);
- Academic research.
Taxability, Insurability, Pensionability
Please note: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has recently ruled that all participant income and supplementary benefits are considered taxable income. In most cases (including work experience outside Canada), these are pensionable and insurable and must be declared by the participant. Other support, including special costs for persons with disabilities, and allowances for transportation, are taxable, but not pensionable or insurable.
It is the contribution recipient’s responsibility to inform interns about this before they begin their projects. The organization must also provide the intern with a T4 or T4A after the project ends, or the organization must ensure that this is done for the interns.
In the cases of work experience outside Canada, for the remuneration to be treated as taxable, pensionable and insurable, the following criteria should be observed:
- The employment is not in international transportation
- The employment is not on a ship or vessel
- The sponsor is Canadian (resident in or operating in Canada)
If any of the above conditions are not satisfied, or if it is proposed that the participants are to receive remuneration other than wages, the project must be referred to CRA to obtain a ruling on the pensionability and insurability of the employment. Information related to pensionability and insurability and whether a contract of service or a contract for service exists, is available on the CRA website.
Please note: CIDA Project Officers are not qualified to provide advice on types of taxable income and on the insurability and/or pensionability of funds provided to participants. The decision to either pay the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI) contributions or not, and any risk resulting from that decision, is solely in the hands of the sponsoring organization. If sponsoring organizations decide to make the contributions, CIDA agrees to allow the organization to use either participant or administrative costs to cover the employer portions, although the amount granted by CIDA for each internship remains at $15,000.
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