The International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience is an international, nonpolitical, independent organization organizing internships abroad.
IAESTE was founded in 1948 in London and has so far sent more than 300.000 students to over 85 countries. Germany is a member of the IAESTE program since 1950. It is represented by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
In every member country there is a national committee (NC) and several local committees (LC) at the universities. In Germany the national committee is represented by a department of the Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdientes (DAAD) repräsentiert. IAESTE wird durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Wissenschaft sowie das Auswärtige Amt unterstützt. Vor Ort werden die Lokalkomitees von engagierten Student*innen der jeweiligen Hochschulen gebildet. Wo dies nicht möglich ist, nehmen die Akademischen Auslandsämter die Aufgaben von IAESTE wahr.