Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies - Vrije Universiteit Brussel

When I graduated from my Bachelor International Communication I felt like I wasn't quite ready yet to enter the labour market, I felt that I needed to gain some more knowledge. I did some research on internet and found about BICCS (Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and its Post-graduate program China Business Development. After having gathered some more information, I was immediately enthusiastic and decided to enrol for the program. The thing that appealed me the most was the practical aspect of the program. Throughout the year we were taught a wide range of courses, with lot of diversity to give us a broad perspective on the topic. I found it inspiring to be taught by people actually working in the field because I believe learning from personal experiences can be more useful than theory from books. In general it was a very interesting and refreshing combination of theory and practical knowledge. The second semester we started our internships. Some fellow students decided to go to China and some stayed in Belgium. I chose to stay in Belgium because I already experienced doing an internship in Shanghai, and this time I wanted to work for a Chinese company in Belgium. With the help of BICCS I got an internship at Hainan Airlines in Brussels. I was responsible for the marketing related issues and successfully organised the inauguration event for the opening of the Brussels-Shanghai flight. At the end of the internship I was offered a job and decided to take it and currently I am still working at Hainan Airlines. Overall I believe this postgraduate program China Business Development is of high educational value and I feel privileged to have experienced the whole programme from BICCS.