Twelve Bermudian university students yesterday celebrated the start of their two-month internship programme with three of Bermuda’s and the world’s top insurance, banking and accounting organisations.The annual Summer Internship Programme (SIP) hosted by Ace Group, HSBC Bermuda and Deloitte is now heading into its ninth year having seen more than 100 students participate in previous years and several eventually finding employment full time.The ten-week, paid programme will see the students rotate between the three firms gaining work experience at three global giants in the insurance, financial and accounting industries.Starting this week and running through August 12, the students five men and seven women - will spend two consecutive weeks at each company.Denise Riviere, of OD Solutions, an external consulting firm, who has been involved in the development of the internship and the students’ mentor for the past six years, says that these students won’t be tasked with mundane filing and fetching coffee.“The programme is very team based where they either work on case studies or strategic projects that are currently going on at the company at the time,” she said. “The programme is very much a reenactment of a real-life working situation where the students have to figure out different personalities and challenges but doing it in a safe environment where they can learn and ask questions.”Additionally, the students will be broken into two groups to assist two local charities Teen Services and Eliza DoLittle Society’s Daily Bread in developing their respective marketing plans. They will take the projects from conception to implementation and each group will present final reports and recommendations at the end of the programme.According to Ms Riviere, the original idea for the internship was created by chance during a casual conversation between the head honchos of Ace, HSBC Bermuda and Deloitte when they were all at the same social gathering.“It started at the top and they came up with the idea,” she said.It’s been going strong ever since with each year seeing around 40 hopefuls apply to the programme. The applicants are vetted through phone interviews and face-to-face meetings. Twelve are then chosen to participate.“Not only has it helped participants potentially get a job with the companies involved but other companies as well just based on the recognition of the programme,” said Ms Riviere. “The internship is developmental by design, coaching the students to be better students and future employees.”