“Going international and broadening horizons”, also cultivating world-class business management talents has always been some of the educational goals of the College of Management, National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU). In response to the government’s New Southbound Policy, the College has specially set up the “New Southbound Country Taiwanese Business Apprenticeship and Internship Scholarship” to encourage students from the College to participate in international trainee or internship programs. In 2018, 9 students from the Institute of Information Management, the Institute of Financial Management and the Master of Business Administration Program in International Business (IBMBA) received the scholarship and went to companies and schools in Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines for internship. The deadline for the 2019 scholarship application is May 31.
Chien-Hsiang Hung(洪健翔), a second year graduate student at the Institute of Financial Management, interned at the Philippine office of Hsin-Fei Study as a marketing planner. He was in charge of attending to the needs of the students, writing articles about and filming activities hosted by the company, and organizing the “most exhausting but interesting” students’ weekend tour. His duties included coordinating with travel agencies, arranging chartered car service, accommodation and meals, setting a curfew, preparing medicines, formulating an emergency response plan, and others. Hung commented that he single-handedly finished all the tasks in just the short 17 days of internship, which allowed him to learn tremendously. During the weekday, Hung dealt with mostly administrative matters at the language learning center. Due to the fierce competition in the Philippine study tour market, many countries have established language schools in the Philippines. He observed that the numbers of students from Japan and South Korea are much higher than that from Taiwan, and he also experienced the work of student managers (expatriate administrative stuff in the Philippines) and the difference in organizational culture.
Yu-Ya Chiu(邱鈺雅), a third year student in the IBMBA program, interned at the Thailand branch office of Merry Electronics. It was the first time for her to participate in the production management process of electro-acoustic components: laboratory operation, quality control audit, import and export management, and others. She commented, “Many of the processes were new to me. Thanks to the internship supervisor for personal guidance and instant explanation”. During the enriched learning process, Chiu also did not forget to acquire the industrial knowledge. In addition to the financial operation and development strategies of Merry Electronics, she also learned about the competitors. She pointed out, “The more I know, the more I admire the vision and decision-making of the senior executives who ensure that the company continues to innovate in a fast-changing market”. In addition, Chiu also used the Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory that she learned at the College of Management to analyze the differences in management culture between Taiwan and Thailand, and seized the opportunity to obtain the consent of the supervisor to conduct a questionnaire survey for each department, and proposed to increase employee activities to build a stronger sense of team cohesiveness and identity. She recommended that priority to be given to the consideration of the company’s culture to retain the right employees when adjusting the company operating policy. Her conscientiousness and enthusiasm have left a very positive impression on the local supervisor.
Professor Jack Shih-Chieh Hsu (徐士傑) led second year graduate students Ping-Hsuan Yang(楊秉軒) and Yen-Chu Wen(溫彥竹) and first year students Te-Hao Pang(龎德豪) and Yu-Ci Wen(文毓慈) from the Institute of Information Management to visit the Vietnam company of Tai-Ling Biotechnology. Based on the local biotech agricultural industry and operational procedures, they introduced an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) to the company to help increase the fluency and transparency of its workflow. Yang pointed out that they would improve the design of the system based on the results of their visit to the factory and interview with the department supervisors. Yu-Ci believed that this internship is an industry-academia collaboration that actually used the theory and skills learned in class and helped expand their worldview. She commented, “This internship is an irreplaceable experience”.
Yu-Chen Yeh(葉侑貞), a third year graduate student in the IBMBA program, worked at the Thailand office of Jin Bridge Trading as a market research intern, surveying the local fruit and vegetable market, consolidating the potential business opportunities of import and export of fruits and vegetables in the entire Thailand market, as well as helping the company develop their Southeast Asia market and import Taiwan fruit to the Thailand market. On the other hand, Yi-Shan Chen(陳亦珊) and Yu-Ting Tsai(蔡瑜庭) from the Institute of Information Management visited Chong Sheng Elementary School in Chiang Mai, Thailand to serve as international volunteers, teach Chinese, beautify the environment, and raise resources to help the elementary school students. They also took the opportunity to learn about the local culture of Thailand.
Due to the internship opportunity, many students visited Southeast Asian countries for the first time. In addition to combining the theory and practice they learned through internships, they also got to experience the local customs. Students from all institutes of the College of Management are encouraged to apply for the scholarship to step out of their comfort zone and open a new door of opportunities for their future.