Scheme to expand US internships
For Thai university graduates, obtaining an internship with a leading local company is difficult, let alone a company headquartered in the US. For a lucky few, that is about to change.
An international business exchange organisation, the Mountbatten Internship Programme, has been interviewing young Thai graduates for one-year internships with companies based in New York.The programme is the brainchild of Paul Beresford-Hill, who for five years was headmaster of the Bangkok Patana School. He left Thailand in 2004 to become chairman and chief executive of the Mountbatten Internship Programme, which was founded in New York in the 1980s to provide opportunities for university graduates from Britain and America to spend a year in each others' countries. They work in businesses while, at the same time, learning about the bigger picture of a changing global economy. Beresford-Hill's dream was to develop a similar scheme to take Asian graduates to New York and, later, to London, to work alongside their British and European peers in international workplaces. They will receive practical training during the days and study in the evenings. In the process they will learn about the US, its culture and institutions, while preparing for a Cambridge University international examination for a diploma in management. The Mountbatten organisation is recruiting its first "pilot" group of Asian graduates to join its New York programme this year. They will all be recruited in Thailand. "Mountbatten's year has three objectives," Beresford-Hill said yesterday. "First, it gives young graduates first-class work experience where they will learn, from practical application, how American business works at a micro level. "Secondly, it gives them the bigger picture of the role the US economy plays, and will continue to play, in the global marketplace, and finally, it provides a personal development experience. After 20 years of bringing graduates to New York and London we can say with certainty that it is a changing, even transforming, experience." Successful applicants are placed in a company for one year. Most of the sponsor companies are based in New York City, but a few are outside the city and one of the largest, UBS, is located in Stamford, Connecticut. Interns are provided with shared furnished accommodation, comprehensive medical insurance, and a monthly US$950 (Bt37,400) for incidental expenses, commuting to and from work, personal expenses and entertainment. The Nation
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