Tomorrow’s leaders international

Tomorrow's Leaders International was funded by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow in 2003 and 2004 as a pilot programme that selected and funded student interns on placement to firms based in the USA. The evaluation aimed to assess its economic impact to-date, forecast its economic impact assuming it were to be scaled up to a national level over a five-year period, identify sources of funding to support it, provide options for an appropriate delivery model, and estimate likely take-up.

The methodology included: consultations with Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, the consultants (Mentorshop) and Scottish Development International; and interviews with participating students (17) and firms (7).

Overall, the project has had a significant and positive influence on the undergraduates and a positive influence on the host organisations’ mentors (in terms of their image of Scotland). The potential benefits of the programme are that it: raises Scotland’s profile among participating organisations in the USA; enforces the view of the capability of Scotland’s undergraduates; raises confidence and vision of undergraduates and allows them to gain key work based skills; and can contribute to potential graduates establishing new firms in Scotland.

The recommendations include: that it needs a stable funding source and approvals process; that extra preparation time should be used to make promotion to participating institutions more structured; and that there would appear to be a strong enough demand among suitably qualified (in terms of leadership capability) individuals within other academic institutions. It is suggested that the ideas of expanding the activity to cover non-academic interns and expanding into new geographies are both possible, but recommends that any expansion of the Programme is undertaken in a phased manner.