Today is already the beginning of August 2009, meaning that my term in the virtual team eXchange Quality Board (XQB) 2008 – 2009 of AIESEC International is over. During the whole period of the team’s activity we have realized important initiatives and delivered significant results for improving the quality of eXchange experiences on all levels: local, national, regional, and global. Here I want to tell you about one of them – the so-called IXPQS 2009.
IXPQS is an abbreviation for the International eXchange Policies and Quality Standards. In simple words it is the set of policies and standards that regulate AIESEC’s eXchange programme on the global level. In order to ease working with IXPQS it is divided into six main parts (documents):
1. International Exchange Policies – Contains all the overall policies related to the eXchange programme;
2. Statement of Understanding – Defines the roles and responsibilities of all parties of the programme;
3. Complaint Procedures – Explains the procedure of raising complaints and the quality case solving process;
4. Exchange Process Standards – Displays the minimum AIESEC services that must be provided to an intern or organization;
5. Privacy Policy – Outlines the use of information provided by interns and organizations;
6. Annual Revision Process – Explains the process to review and improve IXPQS.
In 2008 the XQB team drove forward the initiative of revising the previous version of IXPQS (2005). It was necessary due to changing of the primary eXchange-managing instrument (transition from Insight XP to MyAIESEC.net), various inputs from countries and needed support to boost the eXchange growth both in quantitative and qualitative parameters. As a result, the new version of IXPQS (2009) has been officially released at the beginning of this year. It has continued to play the role of the primary eXchange quality management tool in AIESEC.
But what are the most important changes implemented in IXPQS 2009? Here are some of them for you to see clearly the importance and benefits emerging from the revision results:
- The maximum number of internships per person has been changed from two to as many as possible within the limited period of 36 months abroad;
- The minimum duration of an internship has been reduced from 8 weeks (2 months) to 6 weeks (1.5 months);
- Possibility to apply for the eXchange programme at the age up to 30 years;
- Simplified eXchange Measurement System and other necessary updates.
Thus, IXPQS represents a powerful tool to manage the eXchange programme for all sides involved in it: eXchange participant / intern, organization / project, and AIESEC (Hosting and Sending Committee). It supports the satisfaction of the participating organizations and individuals, sets clear expectations of each party of eXchange, maintains good relationships amongst them, contributes to the promotion of internships, and, of course, stimulates the eXchange growth.
And all this is not just simple words – I have really used the eXchange Policies and Standards to improve my internship experience that I finish nowadays. These documents have helped me to define my rights as an intern and the responsibilities of the Sending and Hosting AIESEC Committees and push them to improve the servicing related to the eXchange programme.
To sum up, IXPQS is a great instrument to manage high-quality eXchange experience for all parts of the programme and on all levels. Truly, it can serve as one of the key sounds of your success.
If you wish to learn more about IXPQS, you can view and download the presentation I have made recently for my session on the eXchange quality.
Also I suggest you to take a look at the wiki “IXPQS Wiki” containing the latest updates and education materials on this topic.
Posted by shurikx 
