UK Welcomes TCS Internship Programme

The UK has welcomed the launch of a scheme that will see 1,000 British graduates boost their digital skills through paid internships with Tata Consultancy Services, calling the programme a perfect fit for wider collaboration with India.

UK minister for employment and British Prime Minister David Cameron's Indian Diaspora Champion Priti Patel hailed the internships as a "highly ambitious programme" as part of a wider Generation UK-India initiative at an event in London on Tuesday.

"This is an incredibly exciting opportunity. Over the next four years, the TCS internship will play a key role in developing the digital skills of 1,000 UK graduates," Patel said.

The programme was first announced last November in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the UK and will see the 1,000 graduates carry out internships for a period of 12 months at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) offices across 17 locations in India. The first intake of students will go to India later this year, with the programme expected to continue until 2020.

"The new TCS internship programme is a perfect fit within our wider collaboration with India. Over the last 10 years, the UK-India relationship in education research and innovation has blossomed, showcased in the UK-India Education and Research Initiative and the Newton-Bhabha Fund," Patel said.

"That is why, during his visit to the UK last November, Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Cameron agreed that 2016 should be the UK-India Year of Education, Research and Innovation," Patel said.

The wider Generation-UK India initiative was unveiled by British Council in November, 2014. It is aimed at sending as many as 25,000 British students to India by 2020 to carry out study and work placements, teaching assistantships or cultural immersion placements.

The programme has received over 7,000 registrations and more than 2,600 completed applications for the first 500 places on the scheme that were on offer for 2015.