UK children dip toe in global waters

By Alison Swersky
Business reporter, BBC News

Chinese school children learn English from a young age

In a nondescript conference room in the centre of London, a group of young adults from all around the UK are preparing for their futures in a globalised world.

Twenty 18 and 19-year-olds - some school leavers, others school dropouts - are getting a crash course in China's culture, geography and language.

"Nee Haow," chirps the language instructor, which is hello in Mandarin.

They enthusiastically repeat, diving with vigour into various exercises including a competition to see which team can pick up the most jelly babies and deposit them into a glass using chopsticks.

Pilot scheme

They are part of a larger group of 100 teenagers who are preparing for a trip of a lifetime at a cost of £1.4m to the government.

Commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the pilot Global Fellowship scheme will see these teenagers visit three of the world's fastest-growing economies for six weeks this summer.

They will spend the first two weeks on a cultural immersion programme, visiting art galleries and historical landmarks and getting their tongues around the local greetings.

This will be followed by two weeks in a school conducting research on a range of topics including school children's aspirations, their employment prospects, awareness of UK businesses and cultural identity.

UK teenagers are aware of the growing talent pool in developing nations

The participants will conclude their sojourn as guests of a global company, many of which are household names in the UK.

They include B&Q, Shell, Tesco and HSBC.

The aim is to offer young British people a peep into the attitudes, education, business practices and cultures of countries that will increasingly shape our lives.

If successful, it is hoped the event will be stamped into the calendar.

Broad goals

But if you think the participants are gearing up for a free jolly, you'd be surprised.

• Brazil: Londoner Michael Potten, 19, is determined to speak to members of the group AfroReggae, to learn about how they engage with the poorest and most violent communities in Rio de Janeiro's favelas and bring that understanding back to Islington to raise the aspirations of disaffected youth
• India: Cockermouth teenager Chelsie-Anne Pim is committed to a career as a movie make-up artist and plans to spend some time in Bollywood while in India. As part of her project, she wants to find out how children in different regions spend their free time and money - after all, their income will one day be coveted by businesses around the world
• China: Simon Ellis, from Ipswich, hopes to study modern languages at Cambridge when he returns. He realises that language, flexibility and cultural sensitivity are vital skills to have in the new world where emerging economies in the East will soon overtake the powerhouses of the last century.

They are all understandably excited - but they are not the only ones.

Reaching out

The brains behind the operation, Lucy Parker, is practically beaming as she admires the group all clamouring for seats to eat their lunch - a buffet of samosas, noodles and other dishes originating from the countries chosen this year: China, Brazil and India.

"This is not about academic research and it's not a work scheme to help build infrastructure in poor countries," she stresses.

"The point is that these are not nations blighted by poverty to which we feel obliged to offer some contribution. On the contrary - we need to learn from them.

"And we need young, enthusiastic people who will come back and be able to communicate the challenges and opportunities to their peer groups and younger audiences, as they are more likely to get their message across."

The participants are expected to meet the prime minister when they come back to personally discuss the experience.

Ms Parker warns: "If we don't learn to collaborate, understand the way they do business and respond, we won't be able to keep up."

With skyscrapers flowering like mushrooms on China's east coast and dominating the skyline of major cities in India and Brazil, it is evident that just moving up the value chain is not going to be enough for the next generation of UK workers.

And they know it.

Adapt or else

One of India's biggest IT services firms, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is one of the host companies where seven of the scheme's participants in Shanghai and nine in Mumbai will spend the final leg of their trip.

Of all the sponsors, it is probably the least well-known to UK school children, but the firm employs more than 4,000 people in the UK and 111,000 around the worldwide - making it as big an employer as BT.

The Mumbai-based company is part of the Tata conglomerate, active in industries from steelmaking to tea production, and has recently bought Ford's British luxury subsidiaries, Jaguar and Land Rover.

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TCS director of corporate affairs, Malcolm Lane, who is responsible for organising the company's involvement with the Global Fellowship scheme, is keen to give the participants a particular challenge relating to cultural difference when working in a company in another country.

"We have 20 or so different nationalities working in the UK, but they must bend to the British way of doing things.

"In India, for example, the approach is a lot more subtle than in the UK and US and workers have to adapt to the differences. I think cultural misunderstandings are one of the biggest barriers we face and I'm certain a lot of business is lost because of that."