RMIT International Industry Experience and Research Program (RIIERP)

Discover more about the RIIERP program:

Since 1992, the RMIT International Industry Experience and Research Program (RIIERP) has provided outstanding opportunities for more than 1,000 RMIT students from all disciplines to work overseas with some of the world’s leading companies.

These opportunities are available to undergraduate and postgraduate students pursuing programs by coursework or research. They usually involve placements of six to 12 months with major industrial enterprises, mostly in Europe and the United States.

Participating companies include such respected names as Airbus, EADS, Bentley Motors, the Siemens Group, IBM, Nestle, Robert Bosch, Volkswagen and the Rolls-Royce Group in both North America and Europe.

RIIERP is an important part of RMIT’s commitment to providing graduates with a “global passport” – a qualification that arises not only from an internationalised curriculum delivered by internationally experienced academic staff but one that incorporates first-hand experience of world’s best practice.

Each year about 150 participants are able to undertake industry work experience, graduate industry traineeships, student exchange and final-year projects, postgraduate research and postdoctoral research fellowships.

Students who work overseas with the 145 partner organisations that support RIIERP gain the major advantage of developing skills in new and challenging environments. In addition, participants are exposed to the work practices of other countries and cultures, their learning tested and tuned in the international marketplace to which they aspire as graduates.

RIIERP experience is a head start in a competitive international jobs market. Those who make offshore experience part of their RMIT education are highly sought-after – often by the world-leading companies they do their work experience or research with.

Eighty per cent of Australian companies surveyed indicated they would prefer to employ graduates who have had international industry experience during the course of their studies.

The quality of the partners RMIT has assembled is testimony to the quality of the program, which is informed by a Global Industry Advisory Board that includes representatives from Siemens Australia Limited, Coles Group, Volkswagen Group Australia, ABB Australia, Tyco International, Boeing, GKN Aerospace Engineering, Robert Bosch Australia, and BASF Australia.

Partner companies are based in:

  • Austria
  • Canada
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • Sweden
  • Japan
  • Lichtenstein
  • Switzerland
  • The Netherlands
  • United Kingdom
  • United States of America