Recognising China, India and Brazil to be among the fastest moving economies in the world, the Prime  Minister’s Global Fellowship aims to develop young people’s global understanding, their talent and enterprise  through meaningful opportunities to engage effectively with other cultures and business environments.

The Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship is part of Phase 2 of the Prime Ministers Initiative for International Education (PMI2), which was launched in April 2006. The programme is jointly funded by the government, the British Council and the education sector.

Through this programme, talented young people in England will be able to gain first hand experience of the scale and speed of the transformation of the economies and develop a better understanding of what it takes to sustain economic growth and competitiveness and the skills needed to compete for jobs in a global labour market.

The objective is to secure the UK’s position as a leader in international education and to sustain the managed growth of UK international education delivered both in the UK and overseas.

On their return, Fellows will act as reporters on what they have witnessed and raise awareness of the need  to innovate and compete. The programme will build a network of young English people with a personal understanding of global citizenship and a well-grounded insight into what it will take to contribute to and compete in our changing world.

The Global Fellowship is funded by the Department for Children, Schools & Families (DCSF) at a cost of £1.4 million. British Council will work with companies in these three countries on designing business placements and arranging logistical matters including risk assessments.

In contrast to many fellowship or internship programmes, the Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship does not specifically target young people from social or academic elites. The focus is on fostering talent in its widest sense and prior to their departure the young people will have been pursuing a variety of vocational and academic courses. Candidates will be drawn from a diverse socio-economic background. Many may have never had the opportunity to travel overseas. Fellows will be young adults aged 18 or 19. They will, however, have been through a rigorous selection process consisting of a written application, observed group activities and a formal interview.

To maximise the range of participants, the programme will be attractive to, and available to:

• school leavers going on to colleges and universities in the following session
• apprentices on training programmes or students in further education
• those taking a gap year after their formal education

The project will have four components, which are designed to give participants a rounded experience of the country they visit:

1. Immersion

Introduction to language, business environment and culture This two-week introduction will include common phrases and manners needed for greetings, politeness and working with children, as well as language and knowledge required for travel, everyday needs, health, business culture, classroom management and safety. Fellows will be accommodated as a group in a hostel/hotel.

2. School and college placements Fellows will identify suitable ‘action-research’ projects to be completed during the two weeks spent at a school or college. The project should be capable of enhancing awareness of the young person of the enterprise attitudes, business context, or social and cultural dimensions of the host country. During this period Fellows will be accommodated in hostels/hotels or will be placed with host families.

3. Business placement community engagement: Global businesses will host small groups of Fellows (up to five) for another two weeks, during which time the Fellows will be accommodated at a local hotel/hostel. It is expected that Fellows will visit the operations and corporate social responsibility programmes for the company hosting the placement and learn about the business environment and how the host company interacts with the community.

4. Downing Street reception There will be a reception at Downing Street for the Fellows and the global companies who have hosted them. Each of them will share what they have experienced and learnt with their own school or college and within their community The Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education has been successful. International student numbers are going up. Applicants from non-EU overseas countries are up by 5.6%, including increases from China, Hong Kong, USA, Singapore, Canada and Pakistan. The UK is widely recognised as a world leader in the increasingly competitive market for international education. The total value of education and training exports to the UK economy is nearly £28 billion. The British Council has worked with various government departments for many years to deliver a range of excellent international education programmes. School links and teacher exchange programmes are making a real difference. 2184 schools in England have been awarded an International School Award since its introduction in 1999. Education partnership programme with India (UKIERI) is widely acknowledged as excellent practice in this field. The Global Fellowships programme will have an operational base in each of the countries in which it operates. These operational bases will be in the British Council’s main office in each country, with access to contact services through regional offices.

For 2008, the operational base in India will be:
British Council India
British Council Division
British High Commission
17 Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi – 110001

For more information on the Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship please contact Kartar.Singh@in.britishcouncil.org