This article was first published in The Straits Times

While their peers took up summer internship positions in comfortable offices in Raffles Place this June, NTU students Benjamin Kwek and Oh Zhi Jie chose to head to Ghana. During their 10-week stint with agribusiness group Wilmar International, they did everything from translation work to market research, on top of learning to live in an unfamiliar environment. Both said they probably learnt more than they would have if they had interned at companies back home.

NTU director of the Career and Attachment Office, Mr Loh Pui Wah, said the university has been increasing the variety and choices of overseas experiences, with some 300 students going overseas for internships and work-and-study programmes last year. A new scholarship programme started this year by Mr Kuok Khoon Hong, chairman and chief executive of Wilmar International provides for internships in emerging markets such as Ghana, South Africa, Ukraine and Sri Lanka. The three publicly funded universities here say that more undergraduates are going overseas for their summer internships and they are not just packing their bags for major cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong or New York. Among the new destinations students are heading to are those in Africa, the Middle East and Central America.