Plus W Conducts 5-Day Joint Global Internship for 9 Japanese and 10 Pakistani Students

Plus W Inc. (Shibuya, Tokyo; CEO: Wakako Sakurai) conducted a joint global internship in August 2024, bringing together Japanese and Pakistani students. We are pleased to announce that the five-day program was completed, during which students engaged in international exchange, discussions on utilizing overseas talent in Japanese IT companies, and business concept development.

## Business Environment and Background
The business environment has changed significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic, with the acceleration of DX enabling seamless global connections. Consequently, global orientation among students has increased, with more seeking workplaces and roles where they can create new value with diverse members across borders.

However, current internship programs often offer few opportunities for practical global collaboration, frequently remaining at the level of desktop research. Therefore, our company developed an internship program that enables a more practical global collaborative experience.

## Internship Overview
- Dates: August 1, 8, 19, 22, and 29, 2024
- Duration: Approximately 3 hours per day
- Participants: 9 Japanese students, 10 Pakistani students
- Organizer: Plus W Inc.
- Method: Hybrid (In-person + Online)

## Program Content
### [DAY 1] August 1
- Kick-off
- Case Study Overview: "Utilization of Overseas Talent and Business Proposals for Local Japanese IT SMEs"
Shared cases based on real IT SMEs to organize their challenges and propose solutions. Deliberations continued throughout the internship.

### [DAY 2] August 8
- Discussion with Guest ①: Mr. Kimihide Ando (Honorary Investment Advisor to the Prime Minister's Office of Pakistan & Senior Advisor to Plus W)
Mr. Ando commented on the importance of the "Connecting Dots" concept shared by Bill Gates, encouraging students to challenge new things with an international perspective.
- Discussion with Guest ②: Mr. Satoshi Suzuki (Senior Technology Specialist, AI CROSS Inc.)
Mr. Suzuki highlighted the severe IT talent shortage in Japan, predicting a gap of 787,000 workers by 2030, and emphasized the flexibility of Pakistani engineers and the importance of communication.
- Lectures/Discussions on Japanese and Pakistani IT markets.
- Creation of Language Guides: Japanese and Pakistani students paired up to teach each other daily conversation and create guides for Japanese and Urdu.

### [DAY 3] August 19
- Presentation of previous creations / Sharing case studies of Plus W's initiatives.
- Discussion with Senior Director Junya Fukui on global career paths and working in diversity.
- Group work for business proposal creation.

### [DAY 4] August 22
- Sharing progress and group work for proposals and presentations.

### [DAY 5] August 29
- Final Presentation to Management
Each team presented final reports on overseas talent utilization and business proposals. Feedback was provided by Plus W executives.

## Participant Universities
Japanese Students (9 total):
Hitotsubashi University, Sophia University, Hiroshima University, University of the Ryukyus, University of Toyama.