Kuala Lumpur, April 25, 2011: The WIEF Foundation’s Internship Programme, a cross-border initiative involving international students and international corporations, celebrates this year’s successful placement of 9 interns from all over the world in some of the best corporations in the country and abroad. The reception, hosted by Tun Musa Hitam, Chairman of WIEF Foundation, brought together past and current interns, partner corporations, and members of the press for a simple gathering to celebrate this auspicious moment. This year’s intake of 9, a healthy increase compared to 5 students last year, brings invaluable opportunities found in the corporate environment such as leadership values, skills and cultural exchange.
These students, Ili Juliana (Malaysia), Shaima Karishwa Keris (Sri Lanka), Andinna Eva Habiba (Indonesia), Nesmy Zulfa Hidayati (Indonesia), Martha Octavia (Indonesia), Akeem Koye (Nigeria), Swaleh Maulid Omari (Kenya), Ahmed Mohammed Al-Iesawi (Iraq) and Oybek Batirov (Uzbekistan) were placed in reputable corporations such as Sime Darby, CIMB, Ethos & Company, Rio Tinto Alcan, PricewaterhouseCoopers and AsiaEP for an average of approximately 6 months.
The WIEF Internship programme under the “Groom a Leader” initiative of the WIEF Young Leaders Network chaired by Dato’ Sri Nazir Razak, CEO of CIMB Group, is a programme designed to help empower young people with leadership and management skills through internship exchange in reputable companies across the globe. With an increasing number of corporations participating, including renowned names such as CIMB, Sime Darby, Ethos & Company, Al-Ghurair Group, Rio Tinto Alcan, Unicorn International Islamic Bank, AsiaEP and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the programme seeks to place promising young students into these corporations for a period of 3-6 months, during which they will be exposed to corporate culture and learn crucial skills at work. The Programme, now receiving more than 200 applications from students worldwide, has been responsible for placing 14 students from Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq and Uzbekistan in various companies in Malaysia and abroad. Moving forward, the Programme aims to broaden its participation base of companies to include not only corporations in the Muslim World, but also other global corporations that are interested to invest in the future of the Muslim World. The future begins here.
The WIEF Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in Kuala Lumpur, organises the annual World Islamic Economic Forum, a world-class business platform showcasing business opportunities in the Muslim world, and to run programmes of the various initiatives of the Foundation that strengthens people partnership and knowledge exchange between Muslim and non-Muslim communities across the globe. The Foundation aims to tackle problems in the Muslim world strictly from a business perspective, and to build bridges through business between the Muslim and non-Muslim world.