The paper is divided into two parts, the first part of which deals with the theoretical analysis of professional practice in higher education, different types of professional practice are considered, and the representation of professional practice in Croatian higher education is analyzed. Also presented are the main findings of the research on the acquisition of competences in education on the example of Erasmus+ trainees in Croatia and the main results of the research on motivators for going on a traineeship in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, professional practice in the context of the Erasmus+ program is analyzed, and as part of that, an analysis of secondary data on Erasmus+ professional practice at the University of Zagreb in the period from 2015/2016 is presented. until 2020/2021 years. Also, an important place in the work is occupied by the chapter on AIESEC professional student internships. The second part of the paper is based on empirical research conducted in January 2023, in which participants of international professional student internships (Erasmus+ and AIESEC) participated and their perception of the usefulness of professional internships, ways of informing themselves, motivation for attending the aforementioned student internships, and their usefulness . The connection between employment and the experience of international student practice through the sphere of acquired competences was also checked. In other words, the self-assessment of the possible usefulness of the student internship experience during employment was examined.