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Social Problem Definition
The Social Problem
ISSUE NAME: CAREER DEVELOPMENT, BUSINESS UNDERSTANDING
The Social Problem After the YouthSpeak results, AIESEC’s global survey on youth’s path from Education to Employment,
we realized that 43% of the student from Romania want to become entrepreneurs and another 40% want to work in a
multinational company which means that almost all of them want to do one of these two things. However, students don’t get
enough practical experience with their university education, which is way too theoretical and has almost no space for skills
and behaviors development.
The issue is, then, that university students have a huge gap between defining what they want for their professional careers
(based on lack of understanding of the business or entrepreneurial work) and the actual planning of their career development
steps. This results in a high unemployment rate and furthermore in very low personal and professional satisfaction with the
jobs the students get in the future.
The Social Problem
1.1. MARKET NEEDS
Motivation for learning: which means that the students need to see the relevance in what they’re doing in order to have the
right motivation
Practice: one of the main issues for a student in Romania is that there’s nothing practical in their faculties which lead us to
unprepared students for the market.
Being open to the market: it’s really hard for a common student to be visible for the market and also to know what’s going on
in the market, so he can understand the possibilities and trends happening and how it can connect to his future career.
Possibility of doing something in your own country: another thing would be that most of the students leave after they finish
their faculty just because they don’t know what are their possibilities in their own country and don’t feel connected to
Romania, thus they look forward to emigrate.
Foreign Languages: because it’s impossible to work in a multinational or to have your own company without knowing at least
one more language, specifically English, and also it’s more important to practice it than to study it.
The Social Problem
1.2. MARKET NEEDS
Attracting students: the universities have a really big problem in making the people that finished the highschool to apply for
the local university.
Promotion: both companies and universities have a difficulties in actually reaching the students and having conversations
with them.
Career orientation: due the fact that the faculty is not enough for a student to figure out what they want in their career and a
lot of them finish the faculty without knowing what they will do, they need to find out from the first years of faculty at least in
order to be able to practice
Self-awareness: again, one of the most important things to know, because it’s way easier to decide what you can do I your
future, what you should improve, at what you’re good and what should be your next steps if you’re self-aware.
Technical skills: nowadays the companies search qualified people to work on their company and only with theoretical skills
it’s really hard to get all the knowledge that you need.
Long tern vision: it’s something that it’s missing from our thinking for generations and it’s really hard to build something and to
take some actions if you don’t see the end goal of that and that’s why it’s really important for the students to start having a
long term vision.
The Social Problem
2. CURRENT TRENDS
Economical instability: it affects a lot the whole population of Romania, but more than that the students, because maybe
there are a lot of times when they don’t have money to invest in their own development.
Western countries module: this is something that we can actually work on an bring with our project. Western countries
module, referring to the universities module, where they do a lot of practice stuff which help them in their future.
Bad media example: there is a big problem in Romanian society that you have nothing to watch on TV. There are only bad
examples and this affect the students because it restrict they long term thinking and their possibilities.
Virtual orientation: day by day we are going virtual more and more and most of the people that are doing this are the
students.
Emigration of the young population: there are a lot of students that after they finish their faculties are leaving the country just
because of the salaries and because they don’t see the possibilities that Romania can offer.
The wish to care more and do less: there are a lot of people aware and talking actively about the problems that they have
and Romania as a country has but few ones are doing nothing to improve those problems. There is a lack of motivation for
actually doing things to improve what’s not good.
Entrepreneurship: more and more students want to become entrepreneurs after their faculties.
The Social Problem
3. ROOT CAUSES
Off-dated educational system: the model is inherited from the industrial era and hasn’t been adapted to meet today’s
demand. The students are taught lots of theory but very little practical activities are held, together with a lack of focus in
actual skills and competencies development.
No long term thinking: The students themselves don’t have a long-term orientation for their lives, which includes their
careers. They don’t necessarily see the importance of investing in their professional development further than what is taught
at universities and to understand what the market is like, and thus they are moved by inertia and not planning their futures.
Financial instability : Most of the university students don’t have a strong financial stability that allows them to develop the just
mentioned long-term thinking, thus focusing mostly in financial survival, which means accepting jobs and making career
choices based only or mostly in financial benefits, instead of what might be an actually planned career path.
The Social Problem
4. ENVIRONMENTAL LANDSCAPES
Other NGO’s: there are a lot of NGO’s that are trying to tackle similar issues with relatively equivalent ideas and that come
up with the similar projects.
The companies programs that are similar: some companies have their own campus engagement strategies. It can affect us
because the students are more likely prefer approaching a company than a student organization and they might also have
the chance after the companies programs to be hired there (being a more short-term oriented possibility for them).
The universities: some universities are having a similar projects and they can have more visibility then us in the students
market.
The Social Problem
5. BARRIERS & OPPORTUNITIES
AIESEC positioning in the student market: depending on the city, AIESEC might not have the most positive positioning in the
student market. Furthermore, we have different programs for them (TRY, Global Volunteer, Entrepreneur and Talent) that
might compete against each other and confuse them if not presented properly.
Need for students in companies: there are a lot of companies that want to grow a lot in the near future and they don’t have
students with to hire with enough preparation and experience in order to do that.
Internationalism: the thing that makes us unique as an organization is that we bring international students to learn together
with our students. They can bring new ideas, new perspectives and furthermore a mindset that “it can be done”.
University Relationships: Most of the AIESEC Local Committees have long-term positive relations with their host universities,
which allows them to connect this project to the university in order to have a better positioning and endorsement.
Social Business Idea
Social business idea
SOCIAL WISE
Given the fact that the main issue identified is lack of career orientation and business understanding in university students,
the project’s idea is to create spaces where the students can learn in theoretical and practical matters deeper knowledge
about different areas of business, broken down into categories.
The content of the program’s agenda for each area of category of a business (module) is developed in partnership with
companies that work in the field, generating that way the connection between what employers need and what the students
will actually learn in the project.
Furthermore, the content of the project is not delivered in the classical “I teach, you learn” methodology. Each student group
will have AIESEC international volunteer interns who will act as Team Leaders, that are not experts in the subject, but are
very interested and passionate about it. The interns will be trained to deliver Soft Skills sessions and in how to deliver Team
Standards for the students and then they’ll be responsible for keeping track of their performance during the whole period of
the project. Part of the practical experience is that in each group will be composed of 3~7 students for each intern and they
will work on a brief given by the company. This agenda will develop this way both knowledge and practical skills of the
students.
At the end, all the “graduated” participants from the project pass to be part of a “talent pool” where they can have contact
with the partner companies and thus creating the opportunity for youth-employer connection and employability. Also, they will
receive practice certificates, if they meet the criterias ( #of working hours, #of trainings they participated to).
Social business idea
AIESEC WISE
From the AIESEC perspective this project has a huge relevance: from the Social Development (iGV) side, it allows massive
grow through a highly scalable model for exchange realizations by connecting to a relevant need of society (that will have
high demand in the long-term and is relevant for the world’s current trends) and by creating a kind of job description for
interns which requirements are not specialists, allowing easy matching and massive volume but also many benefits.
From the macro AIESEC perspective, the project responds to the organization’s essence of leadership development for
youth. We offer a program for our main target as organization, university students, which is relevant to their needs and
complementary to the other programs that we as AIESEC offer (exchange and team experiences). In this sense, it generates
both brand positioning in them as customers of AIESEC, generating awareness of the organization and possibilities for cross
- selling other programs and at the same time we serve to our core purpose of youth development with an alternative
programs.
In the organizational results perspective, the basic operational idea goes as following: each area of business has 2 modules,
each module has 4 groups, each group has 7 participants and 1 intern. In that sense a local AIESEC office that runs 1 area
of business would have approximately 50 participants in total, with 8 interns. Then the number is highly scalable depending
on the number of groups per module (which depends in market demand of the project) and on the number of areas of
business opened.
Last but not least, from the corporate perspective, the project also has a lot of potential to build long-lasting relationships that
could go beyond the project itself, as well as positioning AIESEC in the business sector further.
Every university student will have a clear career path developed during their touch-points with the local
companies and international trainers.
The Projects Vision
BECOME provides companies
with employer branding
opportunities in a multicultural
approach anda awareness in
the
local market by giving access
and direct contact for shaping
nurturing and assessing future
candidates through trainings
and practical projects.
Expectation & WoW setting
Events
TESA implementation
LEAD nurturing
Feedback
Curricula partners
Universities
Local Student NGOs
Erasmus
Media
Logistical sponsors
STUDENTS
COMPANIES
BECOME provides students
with a clear career path and a
connection with the local
companies for their personal
and professional development
in a multicultural environment
through trainings and practical
projects.
INTERNS
Face 2 face
Social Media
Off-line
Account Management
Weekly updates
Working hours
Marketing, Logistics,
Customer serviceSales costs Accomodation Participants fee Sonsorships EP fee
Human resource
Logistics, Materials
Education
Agenda
Alumni
Previous partners
Marketing
Engagement
Project Implementation
Sales
Account Management
Reports
Selection
Preparation (IPS, TTT)
TESA implementation
Business canvas model
1. CUSTOMER SEGMENTS
1. Students as beneficiaries: They are the main beneficiaries of the project and the main purpose of it’s existence. For them
is the core value delivery in order to tackle the issue of career orientation and business understanding.
2. Companies: Are a key customer for our project and the fundamental income providers.
There are 2 types of packages we as organizers are going to sell.
• Consumer branding (Support & Content partners): Companies which will want to be associated with our project will give us
sponsorships in exchange for advertising. (ex: a food company who wants to position itself in the student sector).
• Employer branding (Agenda partners): Companies which will want to have access to a pool of talented students from which
they can hire after the project, so they invest resources to develop the agenda of the project and support in the delivery.
Business canvas model
2. VALUE PROPOSITION: What do we give to each other?
1. Career Orientation, Business Understanding, international Environment: By bringing international young people with other
perspectives our students will gain strategical thinking when developing a business and being more aware of their
professional path and also they will get connected to the local company market for understanding it.
2. Consumer Branding, Employer Branding, Access to qualified domestic talent:
• Consumer branding: By partnering with our project, we can help them make their business more known and we can deliver
that for them not only on the local and national level, but also on the international scale through our interns.
• Employer Branding: There are a lot of companies that want to grow in the near future and they lack access to prepared
students, since they are attracted by various companies at the same time. By investing in the students, the companies will
have a better positioning of themselves as an employer of choice for the students, increasing the possibility they are selected
by top students.
• Access to qualified domestic talent: We can offer the company visibility and also they can co-create the curricula for the
project based on what they need: train, nurture and assess their future candidates. After participating at our project, the
students become part of a pool of talented young people that the companies can have access to.
Business canvas model
3. CHANNELS
1. B2C Marketing: In order to transmit the value proposition to the students properly and to be as visible as possible, we’ll
promote the project both online (social media channels & e-mail marketing) and offline (class shouts, bringing friends, word
of mouth & guerrilla marketing);
2. Direct sales : For companies and universities, the method is direct sales through sales meetings in order to partner for the
project and create long - lasting relations that enable yearly growth.
Business canvas model
4. RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: How do we maintain connections?
1. Community membership: For students, we’ll create a community that allows them to be connected with the companies,
among themselves and with AIESEC, to have a space where they can share their ideas and establish future collaboration.
We can do this through communicatin efficiently on a Facebook group, implemantiation of the Team Standards by our interns
and infromal meetings.
2. Account Management: For companies, to have constant communication with the partners in order to guarantee
expectation alignment and achievement. Project reporting in different stages from AIESEC to the partners is included in here.
The customers need to stay in full contact with the project from the beginning until the end. All of this is to maintain and
upscale the long-lasting partnerships for project scalability. Also inviting our partners to different events (like Global Village) is
recommended.
Business canvas model
5. REVENUE STREAMS: Where does the money come from?
1. Participation fee, membership fee: Each student will have to pay a single fee in order to be part of the project in an edition.
The people who will want to have access to the community will also have to pay a different access fee with other benefits.
2. Partnership Package Sales: For companies, the project will have different sales packages that adapt to their different
budgets and needs. The sales are done locally and they are the main source of income to make the project sustainable.
3. TN Fee (Fixed Price, single payment): We will ask for our interns a fee to support in the costs of the project. The exact
amount will be standardized across all social projects of AIESEC in Romania.
Business canvas model
6. KEY RESOURCES: What things are needed to run the project?
1. Logistics & Materials : All the physical resources needed for the organization and delivery of the project: projector,
flipcharts, pens, location for the sessions, brochures, flyers, booklets, banners, etc.
2. Human Resources: The people needed to plan and execute the project processes and activities: the national team
(national project manager, marketing responsible, processes coordinators), the local team (local project manager, project
team, etc) and the interns that will be delivering the sessions to the children.
3. Information Systems: Online systems to manage the information nationwide across all the team. Needed for data
centralization, decision making and CRM. Also there is a need for a strong education cycle downscaled for the members.
4. Content for the agenda: The content of the agenda, with all the learning strategies and methodologies, which should be
created in partnership with specialized organizations and transmited to the students in time for adjusting their time.
5. Alumni: They are a key instrument in therm of knowledge for event & project management who can help on coaching the
Project Manager and giving constant feedback. Also the can be warm leads for the partners.
7. Previous partners: There is always a good idea to re-raise if the relationship with one of the current partners is working
well enough for a long-term partnership.
Business canvas model
7. KEY ACTIVITIES: What should be done for the project to happen?
1. Program development, marketing & delivery: For students, the program (actual agenda with contents and learning
methods) has to be developed with a specialized partner and then delivered through the sessions calendar by the intern,
according to the timeline predefined. This also involves all the logistics preparations needed, as well as building the
partnerships with the universities in which the project will be delivered and setting the delivery expectations for the project.
2. Sales, Engagement & Reporting: With companies, direct sales are done to get them on board with the project according to
the different partnership packages. After the contract is signed the companies must be engaged in the project ( i.e: inviting
them to the events, have constant meetings, etc.) to build a stronger relationship based on purpose. Later on reporting of the
status of the delivery of the partnership is done (for transparency in the delivery of the contact) and also updates of what is
happening in the project for informative purposes (once again to build a stronger relationship based on purpose).
Business canvas model
8. KEY PARTNERS: Who do we need to have by our side?
1. Curricula Partners: For our curricula partners, we need to collaborate with companies in order to create together a
professional agenda for all the blocks that we’ll have in the project and to be aligned nationally.
Universities: They can support us in making the project more visible, reaching out to a bigger amount of students, giving
more formality to the project by endorsing and showcasing it and also support us with physical spaces for the classes and
other needed logistics.
2. Student Organizations: We believe that a partnership with other student organizations will help us increase the visibility of
the project and to reach more students to subscribe as participants. Also this can serve as a bridge for a better
communication with like-minded organizations.
3. ERASMUS: Never forget about ERASMUS especially when the project runs during the year. And the courses are in
English.
4. Media: Mass-media can be a strong promoter for our projecta and also a good selling point.
5. Logistics Partners: For Logistics Partners, this can be any organization that could help us covering the logistics costs of
the project by direct sponsorship.
Business canvas model
9. COST STRUCTURE: What do we spend money on?
1. Logistics, Customer care, Marketing: For students, there are logistics and materials costs (i.e: paper, pens, flipcharts, etc.),
materials for customer service (i.e: diplomas, name tags etc.) and also promotional costs before and during the project (i.e:
flyers, posters, paid ads, etc.)
2. Sales cost: All costs related to sales, such as expenses for/during the meetings with the companies, money for
transportation, sales materials, also account management costs for engagement, reports, invitations to events, etc.
3. Accommodation and Delivery Costs: The interns must be provided with free accommodation during their state in Romania
for the delivery of the project, being this one of the main costs of the project. Furthermore there are all the standard costs of
AIESEC’s Social Development Projects (i.e: invitation letters for the interns who need VISA, welcome packages, leadership
development activities, trainings, etc).
Ambition
By 2020, 100.000 Romanian
students
will participate in this project.
Rotaru Ionut-AlexandruNational Project Manager Become
[email protected] PosmoșanuNational Soacial Project Coordinator