AIESEC

What began in 1948 as an organisation to help develop "friendly relations" between member countries is now a global association with activities in 89 different countries and territories.

The founding members of AIESEC started to build the organization between 1946 - 1948, but a clear identity was defined in 1948 and later in 1949 at the Stockholm Congress.

89 students participated in the Exchange Program in 1949 and Exchange was defined as the core activity of the organization.

In the coming years more and more countries joined the network and AIESEC became global in a very short period by being present on all the continents.

The number of students and organizations involved in the exchange program grew rapidly and constantly, reaching 2467 exchanges by the end of 1960 and 4232 by the end of 1970.

Seminars were first introduced as part of trainees' reception experiences, in a proposal from AIESEC in Germany in 1961. It was well received by other countries, and a general set of seminar topics to be addressed was proposed and accepted. They were mainly economic in nature, and for the first time AIESEC was addressing specific issues in its activities-stated clearly in a non-political way.

The AIESEC platform consists of a number of different opportunities through which an individual creates their own AIESEC experience. This same platform also serves to connect our partner organizations to the talented young people within AIESEC. The main opportunities of the platform are working abroad, learning networks, leadership experience, conferences, and supported self-discovery.

Together with the principles of the AIESEC Approach, this platform is how we give young people the desire and capacity to have a positive impact on society – that is the AIESEC Difference.

Provide over 5,000 leadership positions and deliver over 350 conferences, AIESEC also runs an exchange program that enables over 3,500 students and recent graduates the opportunity to live and work in another country.

Working Abroad – the opportunity to work abroad is the defining element of the platform and is the most intense experience we offer. We enable about 3,500 members to work abroad each year in fields of management, technical, education, and development.

Leadership Experience – through the management of over 700 offices at the local, national, and international level, we provide about 5000 leadership opportunities to our members each year. This provides our members with valuable and practical experience in both hard and soft skills in management and leadership.

Conferences – we organize approximately 350 conferences each year to train and develop our members. These conferences provide the opportunity to practice leadership, gain important trainings, and develop a network.

Learning Networks - through virtual and physical interaction, learning networks enable different stakeholders to come together to develop their skills, knowledge, and networks on topics of interest. Examples of learning network topics include Sustainability, HIV/AIDS, and Entrepeneurship.

One of AIESEC’s great strengths is its ability to bring together young people and partner organizations from all over the world through exchange, conferences, and virtual tools.

The base of our network is a volunteer membership base of approximately 18,000 individuals in over 800 universities in 95 countries and territories. The national and international offices are managed by students on leave or members that have very recently graduated.

Together, the network manages relationships with well over 5000 partners, facilitate 3500 exchanges, and organize over 350 conferences each year.

The network interacts and collaborates through AIESEC.net, our on-line collaboration and communication platform. With over 1,400 active communities, 250,000 documents, and 10,000 forum postings per month, it is the largest and most active installation of the OpenACS platform in the world.

And beyond our members and partners, we have an alumni network of nearly 1 million people since the conception of AIESEC in 1948. These ex-members stay in touch with each other and AIESEC through the AIESEConnect interface on AIESEC.net.