AIESEC History

AIESEC was founded 1948 after the second World War as a means to create understanding among people from different nations and enable a new generation of leaders envisioning a better world. Today, after more than 60 years, we continue to enable youth to explore and develop their potential to have a positive impact in society. In the early years of the Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales* (AIESEC), activities regarding exchange consisted of traineeships, study tours and the exchange of information on studies. Traineeships were organized during the months of November or December through careful selections by the ‘local committees’ (groups of AIESEC members) and training occurred during the following summer. ‘Receiving Committee’ members of the host country played a role, completing the whole experience by serving as a point of contact for trainees with the economic and cultural life of the locality. Efforts by the association for better organization could also be witnessed after the congress in Copenhagen (1952) addressing uniform procedures and employment contracts for exchange. * Note: Nowadays, the french acronym AIESEC is no longer used by the organization, since in the history AIESEC expanded to other backgrounds different to Economic and Commercial Sciences. Please use AIESEC simply as is.