Virtual company giving a second chance
Print Edition
AN innovative training company, from the Yangpu District, is offering “employees” unlimited chances to start again in a three-month intensified training and rehearsal course which is set up to help people prepare for the real world of employment.
As a member of Practice Enterprises Network, the company is one of more than 7,500 of its kind in 42 countries worldwide. Like most formal virtual enterprises, it has six major departments including finance and sales.
“Employees,” or interns, more accurately, go to each department to learn fundamental business skills. They also take part in different teams for alternative projects, work hard and jointly make decisions. If they do not perform in their roles their project may go bankrupt and the game will be over.
At the company, only the commodities and currency are fictitious. The organizational framework and work process are almost the same as if you were working for a real firm. Each team may decide what kind of “product” they will produce and sell and make deals with a “buyer” from PEN. The “buyer” could be on the other side of the world.
Yangpu government introduced the advanced and efficient vocational training experience from Germany, by setting up the Shanghai Bavarian Vocational Training Consulting Co, together with the Training & Development Centers of the Bavarian Employers’ Associations, or the largest vocational training and consulting organization in Germany.
The two sides built the offline training space for unemployed youngsters in the district and it also provides them access to the PEN.
Star employees
The “company” has hired 79 “employees” since then. They all took part in a daily business operation, learned each step in the work process, played different roles and mastered a variety of skills before they went to the job market. Nearly 80 percent of them found a real job as a result.
One of the star employees of the “company,” identified by her surname as Zhang, was a purchasing agent at an electronics company for PEN. She needed to process purchase orders, delivery notes, invoice and make registrations everyday.
Apart from the regular practice, Zhang monitored the markets all of the time and made adjustment to the price in line with her competitors. She also kept close contact with clients through e-mails.
There are banks, taxation, nursing homes, insurance companies, post offices, exhibitions, as well as, firms of all trades on the PEN, which is no different from the real world. Many of them are on Zhang’s contact list.
Just a month after Zhang started working for the “company,” she became a business veteran.
“I’ve never thought I could handle such a mess,” said Zhang, who originally graduated from an accounting school. After sending several rounds of CV, Zhang was hired by a company but only stopped with it for three months.
“There are too many students majoring in accounting and I didn’t have some of the other skills,” added Zhang. “Although I learned accounting in the college I just couldn’t practice it immediately.”
Lacking confidence and full of fear in the workplace, Zhang once thought she was a loser. But that was before she was enrolled.
Zhang attended an interview at the “company.” The interviewer, a German manager, found that Zhang had good English and communication skills and was skilled with numbers.
Then Zhang started her career at the purchasing department. As a rookie Zhang began dealing with reports, budgets and registration. Fortunately, mentors with expertise led Zhang step-by-step with each assignment. Her co-workers also treated their jobs seriously.
“It was as if everyone were doing their business for real,” Zhang said.
Zhang and her 19 co-workers passed the interview before they were enrolled. They were then sent to a department which suited their skills.
There are six departments — finance, purchase, sales, management, marketing, import & export and human resources, set up under the “company.” After working in each department, interns, like Zhang and her co-workers, established their own business model.
They jointly decided the name and the product of their enterprise and took full responsibilities for its operation. They were given a period of three months and would have to leave the “company” if their business went bankrupt, or if they found real jobs. Then the “company” hired new “employees.”
“Many unemployed youngsters lack expertise and an ability to communicate as they have been away from workplace for too long. They also gradually lost their contacts,” said Dr Tido Janssen, general manager of the Shanghai Bavarian Vocational Training Consulting Co. “The ‘company’ helps them regain all the skills and get back into the workforce.”
Psychological reconstruction
Apart from training in skills, the “company” puts an emphasis on psychological reconstruction, according to Janssen.
“Managers” of the “company” are mentors with a psychology background. They learned about the students’ specialties, working experiences and family background, during the interview, and helped them analyze the reason for not finding a job.
“Students who study at the ‘company’ generally lack experience and self understanding and frequently hop jobs,” said Janssen. “Helping young people to obtain employment is also a process of solving social problems.
“This mode was initially practiced in Germany 20 years ago. The ‘company’ has helped hundreds of thousands of young people in Germany find their jobs and resolved serious social problems.”
Now the successful Germany model has been introduced in Shanghai as a test run has been launched in Yangpu and other districts.
The two-story training space, at 1205 Kongjiang Road, will be expanded to five floors to benefit even more unemployed young people and further cooperate with universities, enterprises and social organizations for the establishment of a diversified and comprehensive youth employment service system.
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