At SMD we believe that providing the chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at what we do can attract people to our industry and provide them with invaluable experience. Recently we teamed up with the Capital School of English and offered six international students the opportunity to take on a brief.
The language school, based in Charminster, was established in 2003 by MD Spencer Fordham and his wife Paulina. Each year they welcome 1,500 students to Bournemouth and give them the opportunity to learn English by living amongst native speakers and observing how language works within a familial environment – we offered them the same chance to understand how language is used in business and a competitive global market.
Setting the task
Assigned to our international division, the students from South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela had to identify two countries to which we could export our products. Not only this, but they had to highlight any significant barriers or local considerations that might prevent the project from being a success.
After developing these ideas, the students had to deliver pitches to our management team at our Tower Park HQ. During this session they had to answer questions and convince the team that their explanations were the best course of action – all backed up with evidence and research.
With support from our very own Capital School of English alumni, Iracy Jimenez major contracts commercial coordinator, the students were able to put together carefully considered solutions to the brief we posed with impressive results.
Our relationship with Capital School of English
We’re thrilled to be able to offer this opportunity and based on its success we would love to do the same in the future. Our Business Development Director, Dan Williams said:
“Giving these excellent students exposure to our international division enabled them to get a taste of the industry – and we also got some great concepts for our export marketing strategy too! We believe that industry and education should work together in a more joined up approach and would like to thank the team at Capital School of English for making this possible.”
Spencer Fordham, MD of Capital School of English is committed to maximising every student’s potential for learning, experiencing a new culture and broadening their career prospects. This collaboration has provided the ideal chance to do all three for the students involved, and it’s clear that he believes these criteria were met throughout this project:
“It was an absolute pleasure to work with SMD Ltd on our innovative and industry-first programme, Future Success. The feedback from our students was very positive and the fact they could work side by side with a local business on a real-world brief enabled our students to put into practice all they had learnt from the course. We are very much looking forward to work with SMD Ltd again very soon.”
If you’re local to Dorset in the educational sector and are looking to unlock potential for partnerships with businesses in your area then get in touch, we’d love to speak to you and see how we can work together.
By Dan Williams, SMD Business Development Director
Dan Williams, SMD Business Development Director presenting information to the students
