IGM Advisers Group has completed the second wave of the IGM Elevate Internship Program — an international online internship in strategic consulting and sustainable development.
We thank the sponsor Alina Group, represented by its founder and shareholder Erlik Balfanbayev, for contributing to the development of a new generation of specialists from the countries of the Central Asian region.
We also thank the United Nations Informational Central Asian Office and the British Chamber of Commerce in Kazakhstan for their support.
The programme is aimed at supporting a new generation of economics students in gaining experience in strategic consulting on real business cases of market leaders in Central Asian countries. It brought together students from leading universities of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The internship was held online from 1 to 29 December 2025. Compared with the pilot wave of 2024, it showed significant growth: the number of applications increased by 238% (from 172 to 410), the geography expanded from two cities of Kazakhstan (Astana and Almaty) to 5 countries of the region, and the number of intern teams grew more than threefold. The competition was 5 people per place.
The programme contributed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals — SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities and SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals.
Client companies of IGM Advisers provided real business cases: Alina Group (strategy for working with new Generation Z consumers in the building materials market), Qazaq National Parks Foundation (strategy for the development of sustainable tourism in national parks), Burnensky Dairy Plant (strategy for the development of dairy product sales), and the Indeika.kz franchise programme (strategy for the development of a network of branded retail outlets).
Professional consultants of IGM Advisers Group with many years of experience in supporting investment projects and strategic decisions conducted mentoring sessions with the teams and shared their expertise. Arkadiy Teplukhin and Tatyana Alexeeva held 25 mentoring sessions with 8 international teams of interns. This gave every intern the opportunity to receive individual feedback and practical tools that are directly applicable in real business.
The introductory part of the programme was enriched by a welcome address from Vlastimil Samek, Head of the UN Information Office in Kazakhstan. Maksim Podberezkin, Coordinator of Educational Programmes of the UN Global Compact in Central Asia, presented the principles and goals of sustainable development. Senior Partner of IGM Advisers Group, Maxim Handrabura, conducted a webinar on strategic consulting as a promising industry and career direction.
The programme was implemented in cooperation with leading universities of the region, including Tajik National University (Tajikistan), Tashkent Branch of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (Uzbekistan), Narxoz University (Kazakhstan), Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan), Almaty Management University (AlmaU, Kazakhstan), KIMEP University (Kazakhstan), Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU, Kazakhstan), Suleyman Demirel University (SDU, Kazakhstan), Maqsut Narikbayev University (MNU, Kazakhstan), International Information Technology University (IITU, Kazakhstan), and Tashkent State University of Economics (Uzbekistan).
The next intake opens in 2026 — stay tuned for updates!