Perfect take-off as Saltire Foundation scholars spread their wings at Edinburgh Airport

Ten future Scottish business leaders have just finished a successful take-off for their careers with a summer of intensive business tuition at Scotland’s busiest airport.

The ten interns at Edinburgh Airport were part of this year’s record cohort of 137 ambitious young people who have taken on the global challenge of the Saltire Foundation’s entrepreneurial Scholars programme.

The Saltire Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Entrepreneurial Scotland (ES) and the Saltire Scholars, representing 13 universities across Scotland, spent the summer working with 51 host companies around the world, two-thirds of them abroad and the rest in Scotland.

Edinburgh Airport’s Saltire Scholars, including Emily Graham and Frederick Alexander, pictured, spent their scholarship period learning the intricacies of running an international airport.

Along with the other Scholars, they attended a Saltire Scholars Return event in Glasgow where they were able to share their experiences with their contemporaries before they head back to their final year at university. This will be followed by a Saltire Foundation fundraising event today at The Gleneagles Hotel.

Emily, a fashion management student from Edinburgh who studies at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, has been working at the airport as a communications intern.

She said: “It has been a tremendously exciting summer. Edinburgh Airport handles more than 10 million passengers a year, with nearly 300 flights a day. It is a really complex and incredibly professionally-run organisation.”

Frederick Alexander, originally from the US but now living in Edinburgh, is an English Literature student at the University of Edinburgh, and was working at the airport as an HR intern.

He said: “It has been eye-opening to see at first hand the enormous range of processes and systems which keep the airport running at such capacity, as well as the management strategies which make it all work so smoothly and efficiently.”

Edinburgh Airport’s Chief Commercial Officer John Watson, who was at the airport’s new forecourt to bid the interns farewell, said: “We had 16 interns in total and the 10 Saltire Scholars who joined us over the summer have been a real asset, as well as a pleasure to work with.

“They have been willing and enthusiastic, good communicators, quick to learn and they have an instinctive understanding of business practice. If they are representative of the future, Scottish business leadership should be in good hands.”

It is the first time that the Scholarship programme has taken place under the umbrella of ES.

Sandy Kennedy, chief executive of the Saltire Foundation, said: “Entrepreneurial Scotland is committed to inspiring, developing and connecting current and future high impact leaders worldwide, to ignite economic growth in Scotland, and the Saltire Foundation’s mission is to find, fuel and spark future leaders.”

The prestigious Scholarship opens the door of the world’s leading companies to some of Scotland’s most talented students and provides them with an unparalleled chance to engage with global thought leaders and entrepreneurs.