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.
At the 1974 International Congress in Bordeaux, an important motion was passed: the minimum length of an Exchange traineeship had to be 6 weeks. This measure improved the quality of our Exchanges.
In 1976 an International Theme Programme was established that focused all international, regional, and local seminars on specific topics. This idea continued and grew through various stages.
After this the focus of the organization was on addressing global themes besides the traditional Exchange Program. Themes like International Trade, Management, Education, Sustainable development, Entrepreneurship and Corporate Responsability were discussed at local, national and global seminars.
In the late 90's the discussion about the relevance of the organization brought the Exchange Program on the main agenda and more and more effort was put in ensuring growth in this area.
Information systems were developed to make the process faster and easier. Insight I was launched in 1997 and Insight II in 2001. As the focus of the organization was the eXchange program again, the number of exchanges started to grow.
Looking for more relevance, nowadays AIESEC is the international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential. Our innovative approach to developing young people focuses on taking a proactive role, developing self-awareness and a personal vision, building networks, and developing capacity to drive change. We do this through an international platform of opportunities that provides 32,000 members over 7500 leadership opportunities, 5000 work abroad opportunities, 350 conferences, and virtual tools to build networks.
AIESEC India was started in 1982 and has grown to be one of the leading AIESEC member countries in its 107 country network. AIESEC India started in New Delhi; Mumbai was its next chapter, both which played a major role in setting up various offices across India. AIESEC received a incredible support and guidance from some of India's leading corporate figures such as Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Adi Godrej among others. The young students who started AIESEC India also took forward their learning and are succesful entrepreneurs today. (Refer to our Partner and Alumni pages for more details)
AIESEC India has won several Global awards and has been the highest exchanging country in AIESEC's global network. Today, AIESEC India stands strong with a presence in 16 cities in India across over 200 colleges as one of the leading young international talent provider to several companies and NGO's in the country and global companies across the world. With its incredible history and efforts from many a passionate students, AIESEC holds a supreme position in the country as a not-for-profit, youth-run organization of its nature.
