OREANDA-NEWS. May 24, 2011. The Sumitomo Corporation Scholarship Program has been one of Sumitomo Corporation's social contribution activities since 1996, and scholarships are now provided annually to more than 1,000 students at 45 universities in 11 Asian countries. This program has been underway for many years in China, and new attempts are underway to develop it further.

Sumitomo Corporation (Guangzhou) has since 2009 accepted interns from universities offering scholarships, and put on presentations by locally hired employees and company tours for these interns.

A second round of recruiting for internship participants was conducted in December 2010 through the website of Sumitomo Corporation (China) and other means. Thirty students, including six students on Sumitomo Corporation Scholarship, were accepted from among the 265 applicants. 

In January 2011 Sumitomo Corporation (Tianjin) began offering scholarship students attending two universities within the city eligible for Sumitomo Corporation Scholarship funding the opportunity to learn about Sumitomo Corporation and Japanese companies in general and to interact with Sumitomo  Corporation Tianjin employees.  Eighteen scholarship recipients were invited to the Sumitomo Corporation Tianjin office, where they had a chance to get a firsthand feel for the workplace and then engage in free exchanges of views.

Among the comments made by the participating scholarship students were "I learned a lot that I could not have studied at university" and "I now have an even more positive image of Japanese companies." We plan to continue the Sumitomo Corporation Scholarship program while developing approaches that enhance the program's content.