Global giant Tata hopes that this year’s social entrepreneurship intern programme will be as successful as previous years in recruiting the next generation of talent, according to Anwar Hasan, director of Tata in the UK.

Tata’s social entrepreneurship intern programme, which will run in India for two months, sees 13 students from the London School of Economics (LSE), Cambridge University, the University of California, and Berkeley of the US undertake summer internships with six Tata companies including Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels, Tata Power, Tata Motors and Tata Teleservices to gain firsthand knowledge of social and community development issues.

The programme provides students an opportunity to work on the community initiative projects of Tata companies in India, providing them grassroots exposure to India while bringing international perspectives and practices to their projects and will cover subjects such as agriculture, health, environment, women, self-help groups, livelihoods and community engagement initiatives.

Hasan told Recruiter: “Tata in India has used internship programmes as a successful form of recruitment and we look to replicate this model in the UK. Internships allow students a feel for Tata’s working culture, letting them experience our values of leadership and trust.

“A dedication to social entrepreneurship is held at the core of Tata both in India and internationally. Educating and inspiring the next generation of social entrepreneurs is, we believe, of the utmost importance. And programmes such as this also bring the added benefit of allowing our companies to interact with UK students in new and novel ways, in support of their own recruitment programmes.”