Introduction

YDC School-Company Partnership, (“SCP”) is a joint effort by businesses and schools to foster the Entrepreneurial Spirit (ES) in young people through a thoughts changing process we term YDC Mind Change®. Supported by the Education Bureau (EDB), SCP brings secondary school students closer to the commercial world while giving business professionals the opportunity to mould our future workforce.

Each participating company nominates three staff persons as the SCP Company Ambassadors (CAs), who collaborate with the Teacher Advisors of the partner school to achieve the program’s objectives. Between 20 to 30 Form 4-7 students from each partner school join the program voluntarily, which lasts for a semester.

After being fully trained by YDC Trainers, the CAs go through the contents of the program with the students as prescribed in the SCP Train-the-Trainer Manual, which consists of five workshops, a company visit and a guided project. At the end of the program, the Company Ambassador team has a chance to be nominated by the school to be the "High Achievement CA Team." In addition, YDC will award the company and school with the most outstanding collaboration and achievements the "Best Performance School-Company Partnership" honor.

Since its inception in 2002, over 100 schools and companies have participated in the program. Students testified at our Closing Ceremony held in the summer each year how the program has positively altered their perspective about career, personal development and even relationships. One consistent comment we also received during the past was that the experience benefited the Company Ambassadors personally.

Although the SCP is still in the growing stage, our ultimate goal is to be able to offer it to any secondary schools in Hong Kong who wish to participate. We thus value suggestions and feedback to help us continuously improve each year.

Objectives

What do students need?

In designing the SCP program, we first asked ourselves what personal qualities secondary school students are most lacking today. We surveyed likely answers from the perspectives of three different groups by asking:

1. What deficiencies secondary school teachers and principals saw in their students in terms of training and personal development?
2. What desirable qualities in graduates company employers were failing to find?
3. What mindset might best pave the way for developing students’entrepreneurship, as seen from the viewpoint and experience of YDC?

We discovered the essential qualities needed for student development today grouped into five areas:

1. A strong character marked by integrity and self-esteem
2. Self-confidence with the ability to face up to challenge and overcome obstacles on one’s own
3. Critical and lateral thinking
4. Vision and mission
5. Interpersonal and communications skills

The previous experience of SCP has already shown that the program can help students develop these five qualities and skill sets, and we believe that these benefits apply to any number of students, whatever their interests or career aspirations.

What will students get out of The School-Company Partnership?

SCP benefit students by meeting their needs described above.

Students will find that the SCP enriches their lives by providing them with enhanced understanding and learning in three areas: Knowledge,Skills and Values.

1. Knowledge

Students can:

1. understand their own potential, capability and deficiencies
2. discover their career aspirations and open themselves to various options
3. gain exposure to the workplace and know about the many differences between working and studying
4. learn about the commercial world and how companies operate

2. Skills

Students can:

1. face challenges and overcome difficulties
2. experience the dynamics of teamwork and co-operation
3. enhance their interpersonal and communications skills
4. learn how to make their lives a continuous process of exploration and discovery

3. Values (Personal and Social)

Students can:

1. develop a character founded on integrity and trustworthiness
2. build up a strong sense of responsibility and commitment
3. seek out new ideas and opportunities and respond to them with curiosity and enthusiasm
4. stay positive and act affirmatively when dealing with people, problems and situation

The above knowledge, skills and values are those that are generally agreed to be the hallmark of successful entrepreneurs. The SCP can thus be summarized as a program that above all seeks to develop the Entrepreneurial Spirit within each student.

Organization Structure

As the name implies, the SCP is a joint effort with shared responsibilities where the commitment and effort of each participant is critical to program success.

The key players of SCP are:

Students
1. Key recipients and beneficiaries of the program content

Company Ambassadors
1. Representatives of the Company or Organization to the partner School
2. Managers of program flow
3. Conveyors and key contributors of the program content
4. Coaches to the students

Teacher / Advisors
1. Representatives of the School to the partner Company
2. Advisors to the Company Ambassadors
3. Follow-up to the Students after the Program is completed

YDC
1. Program organizer
2. Employer of the part-time Student Buddies
3. Trainer of Company Ambassadors
4. Hotline for CAs and Teacher Advisors

Student Buddy
1. Employed by YDC on part time basis, the Student Buddies report to the Company Ambassadors and assist the CAs
2. The Student Buddy is the “Big Brother / Big Sister” for the students, and are viewed as the “companion” for the students to go through the program
3. The Student Buddy is also a progress monitor and a process monitor for YDC
   Student Buddy Sign-Up Form 2007-2008

School-Company Partnership Organization

Program Activities

The SCP consists of seven distinct activities to be carried out over 3-4 months period within one school semester.

Here is the list of program activities:
1. Orientation
   “Warm-up” session for Company Ambassadors and Students
2. Career Search
   Career planning, goal setting workshop
3. Qualities of Entrepreneurship
   An introduction to the Qualities of Entrepreneurship through experience sharing by the Guest Speaker and showing how entrepreneurship can be practiced in daily life
4. Mindset Presentation
   Discovery of the entrepreneurial mindset through business case presentations and role play
5. Company Visit
   Take the students for a visit to a company and give them a close-up look and understanding of the work environment
6. My Career Plan
   A presentation session on “Career Searching” by each student teams
7. Elective Activities
   Minimum of one optional activity designed and agreed by the company and the school. E.g., other company visit, field trip, outing.

How to Sign-up?

Sign-up for schools

Schools who participate in SCP can expect the following benefits from the program:
1. An opportunity to add a new dimension to traditional classroom and textbook based education
2. Sufficient understanding of what the business world demands from new graduates to enhance the way that educators attempt to meet such a demand
3. The chance to develop a mutually supportive relationship with a commercial organization
4. An opportunity to learn something fresh and new about the students, including their career aspirations and hidden concerns

Each School who participates in SCP must recruit 20-30 form 4-7 students to join the program on a voluntary basis. The students should preferably all be within 1 year apart (e.g. S.4 plus S.5 only, or S.6 plus S.7 only). Mixing younger students with older students is not recommended because of the difficulty in adjusting the content to fit their levels.

Prior to sign up, students should understand the benefits and the contents of the program. They should also know their expected commitment and responsibilities before joining:

1. Get to know the Company and the Company Ambassadors well
2. Honor the “Learning Contract” prepared during the Orientation
3. Participate fully in each SCP activity
4. Make a sustained effort to work on exercises, project and other tasks assigned by the Company Ambassadors
5. Provide on-going feedback either to the Teacher Advisor or the Student Buddy during the program
6. Participate in the focus group session organized by the Student Buddy and share personal reflections and observations of the program with the Student Buddy. In addition to student recruitment, the school also needs to nominate two Teacher Advisors to advise the students and to work closely with the Company Ambassadors.

Sign-up for companies

Each Company who participates in SCP should nominate three executives as Company Ambassadors to collaborate with the matched partner School. Nomination should be endorsed by a company director or head of human resources.

The SCP Program offers the following benefits to the Company Ambassadors:
1. An opportunity to break away from your work routine, do something different and achieve a great sense of satisfaction
2. A chance to learn about the mentality of today’s teenagers so that you can stay in touch with the next generation − your future staff
3. An opportunity to refine your own executive skills, including presentation skills, leadership and organization skills
4. The prospect of increased recognition by your company and your colleagues for your efforts
5. Acknowledgment of your work by the school and YDC

Company Sign-Up Form 2007-2008

Presentations

1. Company Briefing Download PPT file
2. School Briefing Download PPT file