'This competition will help us to identify potential talent,' said Simmy Cheng Suet-fong, senior manager - human resources, corporate administration department of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), one of the six sponsors who will provide internships to the winners.

'OOCL's internship programme can also provide the students with practical experience in the business world upfront before they graduate.

Mr Cheng said OOCL also provided an opportunity for interns who majored in information technology (IT) to gain work experience with project assignments in the company's Information System Development Centre in Zhuhai, on the mainland.

The sponsors of the competition will each offer a minimum of one internship over the summer holidays, with some also volunteering the time of their senior management as judges for the competition.

Virginia Ng Yuen-wah, DBS Bank's vice-president of recruitment, human resources, for Greater China, said the programme would allow interns to understand how the business environment worked, the bank's culture and the organisational structure, thus enabling individuals to have a clearer idea of what they want to do once they graduate.

'What students learn academically could be quite different to [their] application of knowledge in the real business world. [This] internship will give them an opportunity to put their academic knowledge to use,' she said.

The internship projects for this competition, which will run for an average of two months, could range from revamping corporate websites to working on specific projects that aim to improve business processes.

All of the internships offered in this competition are based in Hong Kong except for Lam Soon Hong Kong's, which will deploy the intern to its China office.

'We want to give students the experience of working in the mainland, as this has become the reality for a significant proportion of the workforce in Hong Kong. They will work in our office in Shekou during the week, and then return to their families in Hong Kong at the weekend,' said group financial controller Yu Tai-tei, adding that the intern would also be allocated a mentor.

'We are not looking at this as just a summer job. We hope the intern will return to join us in the future,' Dr Yu said.

Hang Seng Bank's Alice Lau Yee-man, senior resourcing and relationship manager, said those who did well would have a competitive edge in the long term.

'In general, former interns will have a better chance with the employer in the future because they already know something about the bank and would have had the opportunity to figure out whether they really want to join the organisation. An employer would also want to know that candidates are really interested in the company and the industry,' she said.

Ms Ng said former interns who decided to apply for the company's 18-month management associate programme typically did better during the interview process because they were more attuned to the company and had more understanding of what a banking career would entail.

First-time sponsor Taifook Securities Group said the competition would allow students to understand the process of how difficult finding work could be.

'This will help them understand the competitive environment, and enable them to better prepare themselves,' said Taifook chief financial officer Peter Wong Yat-hang.

Given the acute shortage of accountants, the managing director of accounting firm Horwath Hong Kong CPA Clement Chan Kam-wing, hopes interns can learn about the profession.

'We want to offer students the experience of seeing for themselves how good our profession is, and bring accountancy to a wider spectrum of would-be graduates so they may choose this as a career,' he said.

Mr Chan said that with the serious undersupply of middle managers across the industry, accountancy firms were increasingly recruiting more staff at the junior level while also strengthening in-house training programmes to garner loyalty and beef up expertise.

Ms Ng, one of the judges in the competition, said she would look for highly motivated team players who were customer-focused, had good interpersonal and communication skills, an open mind and a 'dare-to-be-different' attitude.

'As a tip, students should try to relax during the interviews and let their true selves shine through, as it is impossible to sustain [false behaviour] through different assessments if [someone is] trying to pretend to be someone they are not. The key is to be themselves and prepare well for the interviews,' she advised.