Lithuanian Employment Acceleration and Development Program (LEAD) is a new U.S. Embassy initiative whose purpose is to introduce the U.S. professional development and internship experience to more Lithuanian businesses in order to promote growth and innovation, and to empower young people. This is a regional program that is also being implemented by the U.S. Embassy in Riga, Latvia.

The goal of this project is to develop quality internships within 10 Lithuanian businesses, big or small, which do not have an existing internship program. The participating companies will benefit from a training program for HR managers, through which their professionals will learn techniques and strategies to create the internships, find innovation, and become successful mentors.

The program will begin in August with an Orientation and Training seminar that will teach Human Resources managers from participating companies how to create internship opportunities for students and how to attract a diverse pool of applicants. Over the next six months, this group of HR managers will attend lectures by U.S. experts in HR management and mentoring. In the middle of the program, there will be a regional seminar to discuss the experiences of the interns and companies, how to improve, and where the program is doing well. The program will end in April with a roundtable discussion and an evaluation of the companies and interns.

HR managers from top six participating companies in Lithuania and Latvia will be invited to the U.S. for a leadership development program for one week. Similarly, the top two interns from this program will also be sent to the U.S. for a six-month-long paid internship, made possible with the support of the Baltic American Freedom Foundation.

To announce of your participation, please download the application packet at http://vilnius.usembassy.gov/business.html.