Bank of Bermuda, Deloitte and Ace Group yesterday jointly introduced 12 students who will be working with the three companies over the next 12 weeks in their internship programme.

The students were selected from a pool of almost 50 applicants and represent the "cream of the crop".

Under the programme, the interns will work for ten days at each of the three companies and every Friday will be dedicated to working with one of the charity partners of the programme - Centre for Talented Youth or Bermuda Junior Service League.

The paid internship programme is now in its seventh year and organisers said it has proved a wonderful stepping stone for those hoping to enter the financial services sector. Many interns have gone on to full-time employment with the three companies and past interns' projects have even led to new products at the host companies.

Yolanda Outerbridge, director of human resources at Bank of Bermuda, said the bank is about to roll out a product which was researched by last year's interns as the "Tap and Go" portion of their work at the bank. The interns who researched the product are still kept informed of developments related to it through the bank's e-commerce team in order to see the full process of bringing an idea to market.

This year, Ace plans to take the interns through a "compressed" claims process, said chief administration officer Lori Sampson. "We have designed an interactive rotation project that will provide these students with first-hand experience of the realities of our insurance and reinsurance businesses," she said. "We hope that they may start to think seriously about a career in the industry. The project, entitled 'We've had a claim, now what?' will help students gain an understanding of the claims process. It will also give them insight on how the underwriting departments interact with the claims department." While a normal claim may take years to process, the interns will be introduced to the key stages of seeing one to completion.

At Bank of Bermuda, one group of interns will research an online chat feature for the bank's online banking platform while another will revamp the current Payments and Cash Management business's website. Deloitte partner David Mutch said that during their stint with his company, the interns will work on a client-focussed project to improve policy and internal controls for a Government department and also help a local charity, Bermuda Heart Foundation, to raise awareness of its services.

He said that networking opportunities are a key benefit of what the internship programme offers and he hoped the students will appreciate the "increasingly complex financial services industry in Bermuda" and that "the world is accessible from their doorstep".

Clad in a uniform of navy polo shirts yesterday, the young interns looked keen to undertake their new challenges.

Donita Stevens, an actuarial science major at Temple University, said she plans on looking closely at what everyone is working on in a day-to-day sense. Miss Stevens said she chose actuarial science as a career after doing a work shadow at Ace while still a student at Saltus.

"Experience and exposure" is what Adrian Binns, a sophomore in finance at the University of Western Ontario, hopes to get out of his 12 weeks with the programme. "I want to go into the sector after school but I am not sure where," he said.

This year the selection team also strove to include students from disciplines not directly related to business, which opened the door for women's studies major Risa Hunter. Miss Hunter, a student at the University of Virginia, said she is looking for future career possibilities.

"I don't want to limit myself," she said. "I am looking to broaden my horizons." Recent graduate Kennette Burgess said marketing is her "passion" and the first thing she plans to market is herself. Having just finished Winston-Salem University, Miss Burgess plans to start an MBA in marketing this fall. Marketing is often overlooked among the major scholarship donors, however, she said.

"There are a lot more scholarships for accounting and finance," she said. "But all these companies - Bank of Bermuda, Ace and Deloitte - need marketing professionals. Networking will be very important for me."

Other students participating in the programme this year are: Claire Frith, Logan Davis, Derek Pailing, Ryan Cabral, Shannan Swan, Chris Parker, Shae James and Ashleigh Simons.