PolyU SPEED students participated in an international brand promotion event at a mall through Work-Integrated Education Summer Placement Scholarship Programmes

PolyU SPEED organises Work-Integrated Education (WIE) and Summer Placement Programmes in collaboration with different companies each year in order to provide students with scholarship and/or summer placement opportunities.  The aim of the Programmes is to enrich their work experience and boost their competitiveness for further career development.  This summer, PolyU SPEED students worked as interns at the “RUNNING M&M’S ®” mall event, which was held at Olympian City of Sino Group from 14 July to 31 August 2016.

The internship opportunity attracted overwhelming responses from PolyU SPEED students. After several rounds of selection by the Sino Group representatives, 15 students were selected as the interns. Not only did they involve in the pre-event preparation and planning, but they also assisted in on-site operation and customer service.

PolyU SPEED students pointed out that it was an invaluable opportunity for them to participate in such a large scale mall event. It allowed them to apply their knowledge to real world scenarios, from event preparation to promotion. They also assisted in on-site operation. Besides, since the interns were all from PolyU SPEED, the internship experience fostered a strong team spirit among them.

There were various games set up at the event and most of the participants were children. The students needed to communicate the game instructions to the children participants in the simplest way. The process helped the students understand the importance of effective communication. Some students shared that the event trained their flexibility and ability to manage their emotions. For example, when they dealt with participants’ enquiries, they had to maintain calm and good attitude, as well as to provide appropriate assistance and solutions.

Mr Anders Yung, Assistant Programme Director of PolyU SPEED, who was responsible for this internship programme, appreciated the students’ efforts. Anders said that the employer was very satisfied with the performance of the students, who were outspoken and showed amazing flexibility. The hard work of the students led to the remarkable success of the event. “The School organises this Programme in the hope of enabling students to apply what they have learnt in classes to real work environment as well as gain experience so that they can better equip themselves for future career development.” Lastly, he emphasised that students received scholarships as the reward for the internship programme. On the one hand, it is hoped that the students could devote to the work wholeheartedly rather than merely money-earning. On the other hand, the scholarship is recognition of students’ hard work.