WASHINGTON, DC, United States (CMC) — The United States Department of State on Wednesday announced a leadership programme in honour of the late Caribbean-American Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The State Department said in a statement that the new Colin Powell Leadership Programme will “further advance the department’s commitment and efforts to hire a workforce representative of all segments of society and in support of the Secretary’s modernisation agenda”.

It said the programme will provide individuals the opportunity to pursue careers at the Department of State.

It noted Powell – the son of Jamaican immigrants, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Four-Star General in the US Army – “understood that diversity ‘is a source of strength; it is a source of our success'”.

“The Colin Powell Leadership Programme recruits highly motivated candidates from a variety of backgrounds who aspire to and possess the potential to become future civil service leaders at the US Department of State,” the statement said.

It said the programme will provide paid fellowships to recent college graduates and paid internships to students who are enrolled at accredited institutions of higher education.

The State Department said both paths, which may lead to full-time employment opportunities at the department, are focused on developing future leaders through training, mentoring and on-the-job experience “to provide them with the skills, tools and resources needed for long-term success at the department”.

It said internship opportunities will be in the Social Science Student Trainee (0199) and Administration and Office Support Student Trainee (0399) series.

Fellowship opportunities will be in the Foreign Affairs (0130) and Management Analysis (0343) series, the State Department added.

It said the first vacancy announcement is tentatively scheduled for mid- to late-September 2022 and that subsequent announcements will be held annually in the spring.

All applicants must be US citizens and able to obtain and retain a secret or top-secret clearance, it said, adding that all positions will be located in the Washington, DC area.

To be eligible for the Colin Powell Leadership Internship Programme, the State Department said applicants must either be an enrolled or current student, on a part-time or full-time basis, pursuing their bachelor’s degree in a qualifying post-secondary educational programme.

A cumulative grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.2 out of 4.0 is required, the State Department noted.

The fellowship programme is a one-year paid developmental programme.