2017 is the 3rd year that National Sun Yat-sen University(NSYSU) in Kaohsiung offers International Consulting Project in Taiwan(ICPT), a team consulting internship opportunity for international youths who are specifically interested in seeking their future career development in economically booming Asia areas. Students in their master programs or just graduated are welcome to apply ICPT, a sub program under the “Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP)” held by Ministry of Education (MOE).
As the host of ICPT, NSYSU is one of the top ranking universities in Taiwan in the field of business management, with three consecutive AACSB accreditations since 2005, energetic and active international exchange programs, abundant resources from alumni, diversified industry cooperation experience with local business community. All of these fruitful ingredients combined contribute to the formation of the ICPT. We are proud to be the only program to offer this kind of consultancy internship in Taiwan during the summer and win subsidy from MOE for 3 consecutive years.
ICPT offers a 9-week consultancy internship. A group of 3~5 participants from different countries and with diverse academic expertise and business experience will be formed and dedicated to conduct a project with an aim to solve the challenges a local SME faces currently and finally provides some executable recommendations. Each group will be assigned a exclusively advisor, who is a senior practitioner in consulting industry with much business experience and connections in their career and will guide the group by accompanying them to visit the client, meeting to provide help each week. Local SMEs from diversified business fields and industry backgrounds will be invited to participate and cooperate with ICPT. While offering this precious opportunity for teams to practice and sharpen consulting and problem solving skills, to get comprehensive understanding of business culture in Taiwan, they really expect to see innovative and practical recommendations and solutions related to their current challenges from an international team. Therefore, the mission of the all ICPT participants is to provide a solution for clients within this period.
Started from Pre-program activities from June 5 to June 22, accepted applicants will be asked to establish some communication platforms to get familiar with each other and build up team consensus. At this prepared stage, participants complete all activities on line. Teams will also be asked to do some researches about their clients, industry and the project topic before they actually come to Kaohsiung.
The next stage is on-site real work from June 26 to August 25 in Kaohsiung. While some practical and useful training workshops specifically designed for improving and sharpening consulting and communication skills will be provided before client visiting, periodical team meetings and advisor meetings every week would also provide a platform to work on the project closely both within the team and with advisor to assure the project is on the right track.
Client visiting every week to find out more facts, to identify and discuss potential issues, and to report the findings is also required to further consolidate the progress of the project. Midterm presentation is arranged to check the project progress and teams have to present before all clients, advisors, and judges. Final presentation is the time to demonstrate what you have done and your recommendations to clients.
While our participants come from different countries with diverse academic and industry backgrounds, some even with fruitful business experience, we strongly believe that some advanced skills in personal and as a team are required to win trust from your client and make a successful consulting team.
For the first week on site, we will invite professional lecturers with abundant consulting experience to equip participants with the following building blocks of consultancy skills, including teamwork and project management, presentation and business writing, logical thinking, problem solving and management tools.
To better equipped international participants with sense of Taiwanese culture and for enjoyment in their leisure time as well, at least three scenic trips will be organized during this period. Last year, we arranged trips to Fo Guang Shan(Buddha culture) in Kaohsiung, National Palace Museum in Taipei, and Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park in Pingtung, and one mountain climbing to visit monkeys. Besides, language classes are also provided to improve their communication ability in Chinese and a test will be conducted to determine their Chinese proficiency level in the final.
This is an overall introduction of TEEP@ICPT in 2016. From this video, you can see whole picture of this program from the clips of every activities and events included.
The following is the schedule for the 2017 program and is subject to adjust according to real situations. Detailed information will be provided and updated at any time.
| Events | Date | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Application | Feb 8 ~ April 30 | On-line application |
| Announcement | April 1 ~ May 30 | Periodic announcements |
| STAGE ONE (ON LINE) |
June 5 ~ June 22 | Two assignments in team will be assigned to complete and submit on line |
| STAGE TWO (ON SITE, Kaohsiung) |
June 23 ~ June 25 | Arrive NSYSU, Kaohsiung, accommodation arranged |
| June 26 ~ June 30 | Opening ceremony Training workshops |
|
| July 3 ~ July 7 | First client visiting Mandarin classes begin, every Tuesday and Thursday, two hours each time |
|
| July 12 | First cultural trip | |
| July 28 | Midterm presentation | |
| August 2 | Second cultural trip | |
| August 16 | Thrid cultural trip | |
| August 25 | Final presentation |
(1) Professional Consulting Experience
(2) Chance to work with international talents
(3) Opportunity to learn more about Taiwanese business culture
(4) Free language Classes to enhance your communication proficiency in Mandarin
(5) Cultural trips and activities to understand the unique Chinese culture
(6) Allowance for Living Expenses with NT 5,000 to 10,000 monthly.
(7) Possibility to be recruited as full time or extra intern worker in Taiwan after the program
Generally, we welcome all international youths who are interested in seeking their careers in Asia or Taiwan to apply. To be specific, applicants already with a MBA degree or master degree will be placed on the first priority, students currently in their MBA or master studies the second, and business school students with a bachelor degree the third, and the others the last. Given this sequence, applicants will be seriously considered to be upgraded upon providing sufficient information and documents to demonstrate and justify their qualifications.
Skype interviews might be requested to Non-native English speaker applicants.
All in all, this is quite an amazing summer internship opportunity in consulting project for international youths, providing a once-in-a-life-time experience working with international talents, local Taiwanese companies, and senior consultants at the same time.