The next time you check into a hotel in Havana, the front-desk clerk helping you just might be a student from Canada.

International Career Studies (ICS), a Toronto based firm that sets up overseas internships for Canadian and other foreign students, now has options to work in Cuba.

Working with CubaPlus Travel a spinoff of Vancouver tourism magazine CubaPlus ICS offers internships ranging from one month (C$1,695) to six months (C$5,695). These fees cover internship placements, accommodations, meal plans, in-country orientation, cultural excursions and medical and travel insurance, as well as visa support.

Students signing up for the program must still cover their own round-trip airfare to Cuba, as well as the visa application fee and Spanish-language classes at the University of Havana.

“The areas students can sign up for range from architecture to arts, medicine, hospitality and tourism,” said an ICS official. “Regarding architecture, if an undergrad student is still studying in that area, that person would work with a Cuban [architecture] professor. Or that student can work with one of the restoration projects taking place in Old Havana.”

One of ICS’s strengths is internships in Cuba’s booming tourism sector, with placements at various hotels and resorts in Havana, Varadero and elsewhere. 

“We place people in different areas,” said the ICS official. “We have a lot of contact within Cuba’s hospitality industry. We also work with the tour agencies in Cuba.”

Among positions open to these students: front-desk clerks, bartenders, tour guides, translators and travel counselors. For pre-med students, internships in the medical sector include lab technicians/researchers, dental assistance, patient service workers and physical therapists.

Aspiring young journalists can also sign up with ICS.

“Volunteering in Cuba for journalism and media means being paired with writers, editors, photographers, printers and journalists [who work with] CubaPlus magazine, which is supported by Prensa Latina,” the website says. “They cover a variety of topics around the island, while gaining an up-close, personal look at what it means to be authentically Cuban.”

CubaPlus’ involvement with this Cuba program makes the most sense for undergrad students geared toward tourism.

That publication regularly showcases the island’s music and culture, and CubaPlus owner Dominic Soave has been a longtime Canadian promoter of Cuba’s travel destinations, appearing at trade shows like FIHAV and this month’s Feria Internacional de Turismo in Varadero.