If you’re a budding entrepreneur who wants to develop your business skills, then the Global Entrepreneurial Internship (GEI) programme is tailored for you. GEI’s interns gain first-hand experience in startups and innovation hubs in vibrant cities around the world.
By being overseas, you’ll be able to learn about innovation, disruption, and creativity outside of the Singapore ecosystem. This global innovation insight will give you the ideal skill set to really stand out in the startup market.
Immerse yourself in some of the best startup ecosystems
In order to understand startups and learn entrepreneurial skills, it’s crucial to have an immersive internship experience.
The Global Entrepreneurial Internship team partners with excellent startup ecosystems spread across the world, from Hong Kong to Helsinki, Shanghai to Silicon Valley. You can experience your internship in mature startup markets like Silicon Valley and London, or thriving new markets in Southeast Asia where innovative companies are changing the lives of locals.
Imagine immersing yourself in an innovative and exciting environment with an open culture, such as a startup, accelerator, co-working space or venture capitalist firm where you work side by side with company founders who value your input, to develop innovative solutions and potentially life-changing ideas. This is the essence of working in a thriving startup ecosystem.
In Jakarta for instance, the startup scene is buzzing with disruptive apps, and Bangkok’s startup scene has emerged from backwater to become one of the most exciting in Asia in just five years. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of money going around China’s vibrant scene. Beyond Asia, Helsinki has also been making a name for itself in the startup scene, particularly in AI and gaming.
A rare opportunity for interns
Being in a startup means you don’t get pigeonholed into specific roles because you’ll get to wear many hats at once. This is a unique chance to be trusted to work independently and to take ownership of projects for businesses.
For example, International Business student Vikki Chia had the opportunity to intern with not one, but two companies at the same time in Ho Chi Minh City. In addition to working closely with her bosses and networking with many people with diverse business backgrounds, she also felt appreciated. “Compared to interning in a big company with exceptional talents in every department, startups are willing to trust us interns with projects and give us the chance to explore and experiment,” says Vikki.
Students have the rare opportunity to contribute their ideas; some companies will also let you lead your own projects. Lynette Lau, a Business Studies student who interned at Grab Indonesia, was given the chance to propose and implement new strategies, lead her own projects and work in over 10 cities across Indonesia.
Financial Informatics student Tham Sheng Liang, who interned at Medico in Jakarta, got the opportunity to be involved in a variety of work, from front-end website design, enhancing mobile application features, to back-end data analytics. Some of his opinions and suggestions were implemented by the company.
Since you’ll be involved in many aspects of a startup, it gives you a unique opportunity to discover what you really like, and what you excel at. It’s something that’s very rare in local internships, and even a generic overseas internship can’t offer that.
Where can I intern?
The companies in this internship programme are chosen for their creativity, innovation, and support that they can offer interns. There is a wide range of companies, from game developers to digital media agencies, healthcare companies, online retail, and more. The list of companies is continually evolving.
Some promising startups you can intern with include Medico which provides cloud-based healthcare management system, logistics provider Lalamove, e-commerce platform Shopee, co-working space WeWork, interactive financial advice toolkit FinCast, and game development company Tribe Red.
Where do I go from here?
Current polytechnic or autonomous university students who aspire to be founders of businesses, who are willing to work (hard) overseas, have a good attitude and can demonstrate initiative and creativity, are strongly encouraged to apply for Global Entrepreneurial Internship programme!
Find out about available funding schemes and submit your particulars to bitly.com/GEI2019. For more info, visit the GEI website.
