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Workplace visits


Prepare students for the world of work by visiting a workplace and experiencing first-hand how Asia capabilities are valued and essential. Through our industry partnerships, AEF can facilitate a limited number of workplace visits each year.

Contact us if you would like to discuss a workplace visit for your students.

About workplace visits

Workplace visits are aimed at secondary school students and can be offered in a range of flexible formats. Typically, a workplace visit will follow one of these two models:

Asia exploration model
  • A group of students visits a workplace for a single visit, up to three hours in duration.
  • Activities could comprise a welcome presentation, a tour of the facility and an opportunity for students to have discussions with selected staff.
Workplace problem model
  • A group of students participates in activities based around a problem relevant to the host organisation's Asia-related work.
  • Activities could include a workshop followed by interviews with key staff.
Steps for organising a workplace visit
  • Browse our Speakers Bureau to find a suitable Asia Literacy Ambassador – you can filter your search by location, industry and country of expertise. We recommend you make a note of three different Ambassadors, as your first choice might not be available.
  • Select an Ambassador
  • Select the 'Request Ambassador' form
  • Choose 'A workplace visit' option
  • Complete and submit the form.

What happens next?

  • You will receive confirmation that AEF's school business partnerships team has received your request.
  • On the form you have provided information about the context and objective of your request, and proposed dates. This information is used to explain your request to your preferred Ambassador/s.
  • You will be informed of their availability as soon as possible. If they are, we will put you in touch with each other. If not, we will approach your second preference.
  • Once we have put you in touch with an Ambassador, it is your responsibility to manage the workplace visit. The School Business Partnerships team is available for support as you need it. You can contact us.
  • Please also read the resources below; they provide lots of ideas for pre-visit and post-visit activities as well as tips to make your visit a success.

Reasons to participate in a workplace visit

Benefits for participating businesses
  • Each business has the opportunity to showcase its Asia capability.
  • Visits increase brand awareness within student, teacher and wider community cohorts.
  • Businesses receive support to run structured and easily deliverable work experience programmes – the engagement activities are short, simple, and easy to be involved in.
  • Businesses can meet their corporate social responsibility obligations with a programme that occurs within their workplace.
  • Businesses have the opportunity to develop Asia capabilities in the next generation of the Australian workforce.
Benefits for participating schools
  • Students have the opportunity to see Asia capability in action in a workplace.
  • Students and staff gain the opportunity to visit and interact with organisations ranging from non-profit organisations to small businesses to major corporations.
  • Schools can develop connections with business.
  • Schools can participate in a managed and facilitated process of workplace visits.
  • The programme extends and enriches careers activities, business education and language education.

Sample workplace visit agenda

Below is an example agenda for an Asia exploration model workplace visit lasting two hours:

  • 15 minutes: welcome and introduction to the organisation
  • 25 minutes: short presentations from three staff about their roles, including Q&A following each speaker
  • 20 minutes: short tour of the organisation's facilities
  • 20 minutes: refreshment break
  • 30 minutes: small group discussion activity (students are divided into groups, each with an accompanying staff member to discuss working in Asia and at the organisation – rotate every 10 minutes)
  • 10 minutes: report back and wrap up.

Links

  • The World Bank website has a range of data available in table, map and graph format.
  • The Asialink Index is available for download and contains a range of graphs and statistics about Australia's changing engagement across the region.
  • Asialink Business Resources includes case studies of Australian businesses engaging successfully in Asia and profiles of outstanding Australians working in Asia.
  • Derek Sivers – 3 minutes on how people from different cultures see the world differently.
  • Hans Rosling – 15 minutes of interesting statistics about Asia's rise.

Acknowledgements

Video: AEF
  • Illustration of practice

7 students sitting around a board table listening to HSBC staff talk

  • In April 2015, students from St Mary's College Seymour visited HSBC's Melbourne offices. Find out what happened

Resources

Explore the resources below for teachers and business hosts:

For business hosts:

For teachers:

For teachers and business hosts:

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