Some colleges and universities provide the opportunities of at home and abroad cognitive internships to civil engineering undergraduates, creating favorable conditions for students to get familiar with the present status of civil engineering industry. This paper discussed the educational functions of local and aboard cognitive internships through theoretical generalizing and sample analysis from three aspects:implements, regulations as well as ideologies and cultures. It concluded that the internship is a process that makes students be acquainted with civil engineering implements first, then understand regulations of projects and enterprises, and finally ponder over the architectural ideologies and cultures.