Strathclyde is once again the top recruiting university for the prestigious Saltire Internships – the university as a whole gained 30 internships, while 17 of those went to business school students.
The successful students had to undertake a tough application process and compete against hundreds of students from 13 Scottish universities to be selected for one of the fully-funded undergraduate business internships available, which have already enabled over 1000 young Scots to get a taste of global business experience.
Students get the opportunity to experience life in leading global companies, working on projects of real significance to their host companies while allowing them to develop their own skills.
The successful Strathclyde Business School students are: Jessica Martin, Ross Curle, Letitia Lam, Cameron Matthews, Alice Leyshon, Kerr McEwan, Rory MacDonald, Caroline Ho, Jordan McRorie, Christopher Dunlop, Juliane Grasekamp, Natalie Burrell, Fraser Porteous, Chloe McKechnie, Benjamin Fowler, Jordan Spittal, and Kirsten Meek.
Their internships are with companies such as BAE Systems, Diageo, Edrington Group, GE Oil and Gas, and the Wood Group, and while some of the internships are now UK-based, others are across the USA, South Africa and UAE.
Strathclyde University's careers service played an important role for the students, providing information sessions as it knows internships like this give students a competitive advantage when applying for graduate positions: "The experience of living and working in another country is valued by graduate employers but the Saltire Internships also require students to take responsibility for identifying areas of the business that can be improved or developed, contribute ideas and deliver their findings via reports and presentations to senior members of staff. These tasks develop the skills valued by all graduate employers."
The Saltire Foundation, which was founded five years ago and is backed by the organisation GlobalScots, targets Scotland's most talented college students, most of whom would not normally have access to such opportunities, and provides them with paid internships in such stellar international businesses as GE, Diageo, IBM and Liberty Mutual based in the United States, China, Africa and throughout the European Union, as well as in the UK.
Sandy Kennedy, CEO of the Saltire Foundation, said, "The Saltire Foundation's innovative approach to creating a vibrant and dynamic Scottish economy centres on unlocking the country's human potential. These high-calibre placements challenge Scotland's top students to develop their own skills while working on projects of real significance to their host companies.
"Students often meet and engage with senior level management and gain exposure to high-level business networks. Host firms in the USA have said that the quality of Saltire Scholars is as good, if not better, than their Ivy League equivalents.
"This year has seen a record number of student applications and we will be recruiting 2013 scholars from the Autumn of this year."
More on the Saltire Foundation can be found here.
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