In July 2021, we started our digital business visits with our NFTE schools. Thanks to our partnership with various corporations such as Citibank, Google, UBS, Hotel Jen, DBS, Oracle, Deloitte, Esplanade, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, we were able to offer our NFTE students a glimpse into the various industries. Each school was paired with a particular corporation, where the two and a half hours of the digital business visit offered students the opportunity to understand more about the company and what they do. Students were also able to interact with employees of the company, gaining insights to the job scopes and the job requirements necessary for each career. Through the experience, students were able to be inspired by the stories the company had to tell, and have an even wider understanding of their potential future career.
Though the business visit had to be held virtually, students were equally engaged with virtual office tours and Kahoot games that each company had to offer. Students were also exposed to the company culture and able to talk to employees through station games related to the employee’s job scope. Students were grouped into different personas where they had to explore all the different station games and gain new skills related to each job scope. Some of these station games include coming up with campaigns to market new products to different target markets, or creating new features of a product based on given market research to appeal to a new group of consumers. Students were then given gradings based on their performance in each station, ranging from intern to novice and finally expert. Students were eager to get an expert grading in all the stations and were excited to share with their peers and teachers when they did.
The highlight of each business visit was the pitching that each group of students had to do after completing all stations. Students had to pitch to a judge playing as a recruiter from the company in an attempt to get themselves hired by the company! Students were graded based on their creativity, confidence and content. Students were very creative in their pitches, some even specifying a list of reasons why they were the best for the job.
Winners of the pitch were then given bubble tea vouchers to celebrate their success. At the end of the day, all students were given prizes to commemorate what they have accomplished throughout the session.
