The Government is to fund 50 graduates to assist Irish export firms in a program in partnership with the Smurfit Business School. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe TD, today launched the plan to place the 50 'top-level' college graduates in export-led Irish firms.

Graduates 4 International Growth (G4IG), developed and delivered by Enterprise Ireland in partnership with UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, will last for 18 months.

Graduates will undertake an initial six-month intensive training and skills development programme in an Enterprise Ireland client firm followed by a 12-month placement in a relevant overseas market. The program is aimed at developing firms’ export market development strategies and at the same time advancing graduates’ international business skills.  The focus is on manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors. Successful graduate participants will be awarded a Post-Graduate Diploma in International Growth by UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.

G4IG is open to graduates with honours degrees in all disciplines holding at least a 2.2 degree. Enterprise Ireland (EI) will pay the full €7,900 cost of the post-graduate diploma and help to cover some of the salary costs up to a maximum of €20,000 annually or €30,000 for the 18-month period. Enterprise Ireland will also contribute to additional salary-related costs in relation to time spent overseas by the graduate. The graduate salary cannot be less than the minimum wage salary of €17,600 annually. The deadline for applications from firms and graduates is September 27.

EI said participating firms and graduates will be subject to a rigorous assessment and selection process. See here for more information.

Developing an export market is not easy and a graduate could potentially pick up some useful experience where the product or service is already used in the market. However, it could be quite disillusioning if the task is to find new customers where there are none or very few of significance in the overseas market. Besides, the wiser decision for the exporter maybe to hire local personnel as it would take some time to settle down in a foreign location and become familiar with its business.

 Launching G4IG, Batt O'Keeffe said the programme would create graduate job opportunities and boost exports.

"Ireland’s economic recovery will be export-led and this innovative programme will initially place 50 graduates in firms with high growth potential where they can help explore new business opportunities in global markets."

The chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, Frank Ryan, said: "This initiative is about growing exports by strategically aligning graduate talent, market opportunity and companies’ international business plans.

"It is a unique opportunity for companies to acquire a valuable market development resource and to drive their export sales strategies.

"By combining access to the expertise and contacts of Enterprise Ireland's world-wide network of offices and UCD’s extensive experience in delivering executive business development programmes, we are confident that G4IG will deliver significant results for companies and participants."

The dean of UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Professor Tom Begley, said: "We are delighted to partner with Enterprise Ireland in developing and delivering this programme.

"Ireland’s best option for dealing with the current economic difficulties is to trade our way out of them and a dynamic export sector is critical to our success.

"We at UCD Smurfit School are pleased to offer our faculty’s expertise in marketing and international business in developing Ireland’s next generation of export management talent.

"We are particularly pleased that companies should derive immediate benefits from our action learning approach."

The theory is fine and neither Batt O'Keeffe, Frank Ryan nor Tom Begley have experience of  developing export markets for start-up type firms.

It's a totally different scenario for the bulk of the output of the Smurfit School, which is for positions in large established firms.