Next Step Connections and University of Montana partner to offer students more internships in Asia

CAUSEWAY BAY, Hong Kong - June 14, 2022 - PRLog -- Over 20 years ago, when Jerome Le Carrou landed in Shanghai, he unknowingly stepped foot onto a path that would change the course of his life. Born and raised in France, Le Carrou left the States after graduating and embarked on an adventure to the East.

"I wanted to experience China, the culture, practice Chinese and just to see what the country was all about."

During these few months in China, a chance encounter with a Chinese business owner sparked his own entrepreneurial streak and changed the course of his life.

"From just exposing yourself to whatever is happening … somehow making use of the energy, that moment my life changed," explained Le Carrou. From that point onward, Le Carrou became gripped with the idea of being able to replicate that same life-changing experience for today's youth.

Now, Le Carrou is the founder and director of Next Step Connections, an education organization creating experiential learning programs across APAC for students worldwide. The company has secured internships for over 3,500 college students and has recently added the University of Montana as its school of record.

Speaking on the partnership, Donna Anderson, Senior International Officer and Executive Director at the UoM Global Engagement Office, said, "The University of Montana is proud to serve as the School of Record for Next Step Connections' Future-Proof Your Career – Remote International Internships. Students can earn credit from the University of Montana while building essential 21st-century skills, knowledge, and experience sought by today's employers around the globe."

NEXSTEP also collaborates with hundreds of corporations as Le Carrou believes in the importance of companies today being an "experiential learning enabler" for the world's youth, especially in Asia.

According to Deloitte's 2021 millennial and zoomer survey, 50% of Gen Zs labeled job and career prospects as their foremost worry, with this concern exacerbated by the heated social and political climate. With this, Le Carrou stresses that amid heated political rhetoric, global experiential learning "is even more essential for our world's youth nowadays."

With COVID upending work structures worldwide, this experiential learning is even more important, explains Le Carrou. "There is a heightened level of initiative and communication, for example, required from students in the post-COVID world," he adds.

"But employers, traditional educational institutions and future employees alike all need to understand that the nature of work and workplace structures are changing. Therefore, students should try to place themselves in situations where they can have first-handed exposure to our rapidly-changing world. On our end, it's our responsibility to help the younger generations reduce the gap between theory and reality as quickly as possible. This is all the while helping the student reach their full potential."

Visit http://www.nextstepconnections.com/ for more information.