By Business & Finance The Farmleigh Fellowship today announced the launch of the 2014 Masters in Business Studies (MBS) in Asian Business scholarship programme. Applications are invited from ambitious, early-stage professionals who wish to strengthen their learning and business experience in Asia through participation in this prestigious and innovative 12-month programme, which commences in September 2014.
The Farmleigh Fellowship also announced its five-year strategy plan.
Highlights include:
- Development of a reciprocal programme to attract young Asian professionals to Ireland to study and work with an Irish or Irish-based company.
- Extension of the programme to Northern Ireland to facilitate the engagement of companies and applicants on an all-island basis.
- Added choice for companies who can now place an internal company candidate forward for the programme or accept an externally selected Farmleigh candidate.
Speaking on the announcement, the chairman, Fred Combe said: “We launch our programme today against a dramatically changed economic backdrop to 2010 when we raised a ‘rallying call’ for companies and young Irish professionals to be more focused outwards on Asia. Ireland’s recovery since then has been both dramatic and painful, but over the last 3 years, we have seen incredible Irish opportunity and growth in this region, underpinned by our 65 Fellows and our 50 Farmleigh sponsor companies. We are now focused on extending what we can do to better support our stakeholders and the changing needs that come with Ireland’s increasing focus on Asia.
“We are building on everything we have already achieved by deploying a sharper focus on our strategic and human capital needs. Key to that agenda is bringing Asian talent to Ireland, adding internal Fellowship placements for companies, and opening Farmleigh up to partners on an all-island basis.”
The 2014 Farmleigh Fellowship opens for applications from today through the company website. The 12-month programme commences in September 2014 and is open to all graduate-level professionals with a minimum of two to three years business experience.
The overall Farmleigh Fellowship programme investment since 2010 has reached €3m in supporting Ireland’s commercial, trade, academic and cultural ties in Asia.
Combe added: “This programme has been a tremendous example of the private sector successfully collaborating with the Irish government, collectively investing over €3m in the last four years to drive our trade and commercial relationships in Asia. €2.4m of that has come from the private sector and other donors who share our vision. The reach of the Farmleigh Fellowship is far greater than the purely academic. The organisation is now a fundamental part of the powerful diaspora network through the rapidly expanding Irish business community, pan-Asian Irish Chambers of Commerce, GAA, alumni and government bodies, from Tokyo to Jakarta, and Myanmar to Fiji. Farmleigh Fellows and our supporters are everywhere, and together we do a huge amount to promote Ireland on so many levels in this vast region, often on a voluntary and pro-bono basis.
“Our own strategic focus is to significantly grow the levels of private sector support for Farmleigh but to do so on a more collaborative basis with an eye to bringing new Asian companies and institutions into the Farmleigh programme.”
To date, the programme has achieved a 100% success rate in Fellows reaching graduation and subsequently securing full-time employment, predominantly in Asia. The programme has so far generated 65 Farmleigh MBS alumni who have supported Irish or Irish-linked companies in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Fiji, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Jakarta, Yangon and Singapore.
