PMR School Visit

A practical guide and case study for schools pupils, directors and teachers

A contribution to Global Entrepreneurship Week and guide for YPO members

Richard Lucas
June 2008



Introduction

School visits to companies can be highly educational, or boring and a waste of time. When pupils (and maybe a teacher, and teaching assistants) visit a company, they are typically in an unfamiliar environment. When pupils visit museums, castles, zoos, they are going to places that are designed to deal with visitors, including children. Companies are seldom ?set up? to deal with school visits. Visitors to companies are usually business partners: suppliers, clients or candidates for work. Both sides are out of their comfort zone. It?s likely to be unpredictable. School visits to companies are usually a rare occurrence. There are few set patterns and plenty of scope to take the initiative. This is as much of an opportunity as a danger, and this article is aimed at helping raise the chances of a successful outcome, based on 20 years of experience of school business links.

Figure 1 What are the best features of our school? 16 year old Polish school pupils in a workshop, as part of Polish Enterprise Day


Visit objectives of British international School of Cracow Visit to PMR

These children were very young (3 and 4 year olds from the preschool. Normally it would be sensible for children of 5 years old and upwards to be involved in the goal definition, but in this case clearly they would have trouble articulating what they wanted.

The context
For the teacher/school/children main school project was "grown ups" - understanding what the kids? mothers and fathers do while the children are at school. We wanted as PMR to demonstrate that even very small children can benefit from a visit, and to underline our commitment to Global Entrepreneurship Week. We defined out goals as follows

• to show what a working environment looks like. For most of the children this was the first time in a completely new environment
• to show a business as a place where people are smiling and friendly (to challenge negative stereotypes of business people being greedy and unpleasant, which sometimes prevail in media and society). - the American director of an American British funded community centre in Cracow?s first reaction to the planned visit was "you mean you people who are raping the planet are trying to brainwash tiny kids into thinking that you are giving something back". Sadly such views are not uncommon, and initiatives like this give children direct experience of business people, rather than allowing stereotypes to prevail unchallenged.
• to have the children as active participants not just observers. One of our Principal Consultants Agnieszka Saintmarie happened to have a birthday, so of course they could sing Happy Birthday. It will be easy for any company to identify someone who had a birthday recently, or coming up, and make this an activity. Did it have anything to do with business? No, but it built the children?s self confidence (and was very nice for the member of staff).>
• that the children to learn about commerce.
• Showing that businesses vary and are not all the same. We showed the Microsoft Steve Ballmer video. They loved it (as do most grown ups). We don't behave like Steve Ballmer at PMR.
• Gender roles. We were keen to draw attention to the fact that many of our top managers and other staff are female. This group of children often have mothers at home and are not aware of the fact that women work except as teachers and teaching assistants

So, if you are a schools pupil, director, teacher or parent how can you find a company to visit?
There are many ways, and no one ?right? approach. Essentially let as many people know that you have this goal as possible, and watch the offers roll in. Ask the pupils if they have any ideas, An announcement in the school newsletter, on the school web page, a survey of the parents of the class you are responsible for, a note to the Parent Teachers? Association, contacting local organizations that might be able to help such as: the local chamber of commerce, Junior Achievement, Young Enterprise or Global Entrepreneurship Week. The general rule of communication ?face to face is better than phone, phone is better than e-mail?. Assuming that this yields more than one offer, then it is important to review logistics (how are you going to get there and back, time out of school, permission from school authorities and parents), and the suitability of the type of company for the children. Issues of cost have to considered both in terms of getting there and back and also what is being given up from normal classroom activities. Having at least one teacher who is prepared to go beyond their normal responsibilities is important. Schools always have some experience of organizing trips and visits. The same issues apply, and there will be some teachers with experience.


Pre visit classroom preparation for the school
the children should go onto the company web site. This is an example of using the internet to gather information, and learning by doing in a practical context.

Discuss what to expect. Making clear that a company is a working organization and that the children need to be both respectful and co-operative

doing a survey (Annex 1) of what the parents of the children do, and whether a visit either by parents to school or school to parent company would be possible.

It can make sense for the school teacher to invite a staff member organization to talk to the class (and possibly other classes) about what the company does, and how it makes its product/services (and profits - if it is a commercial organisation), or pays for itself (if not funded by clients).

A visit by the teacher to the company before the visit with school children itself is desirable if possible, both to review the premises and agree the activities planned for the visit. A a ?walk round? is a good idea as teachers will note things that members of company staff might not see (dangerous stairs, access to toilets) and staff might be aware of issues that are note visible to teachers.

Pre visit preparation by the company

There needs to be at least one member of staff to co-ordinate the visit, plan things with the school, and inform to the rest of the company. That member of staff should requested volunteers as per Figure 2. As the former Managing Director it was fairly easy for me, but if you are not a senior manager then clearly things need to be agreed with those in charge. If this is the case, then it is important to communicate about how undisruptive this is for the company. PMR has a hard working and busy culture where it is not easy for people to take large amounts of time off normal work. Our Corporate Social Responsibility policies explicitly makes it clear that time off will be available, but none the less, this is not ?normal? work that clients are paying for, so we have to keep the time limited. Schools and volunteers should not assume that overworked staff working to tight deadlines can do too much (even if they want to). Most professional companies face the same issues.



Figure 2 Pre-visit e-mail to staff asking for volunteers

Accountability/responsibility ? Both school and company should make clear who is responsible for what happens during the day.

Get the big picture and the details clear
It isn?t complicated needs to be thought through. Are meeting rooms, and a projector reserved?. What is going to happen, when, in what order? We knew we had clients from Turkey and Germany who certainly were not expecting to see 20 very small children on our premises. Simply telling them meant that they could act ?naturally? and also had a more positive impression of PMR than simply their professional services provider. After discussions with the teacher we agreed the following:

Welcoming arrangements. The receptionists area were prepared for a influx of small children. We put up notices on the front door and the meeting room to make them feel welcome.

We didn't do a company presentation. For 3-4 year olds business consulting and business publications is too abstract and away from their ordinary experiences.

Tour of the premises We planned the visit to be as undisruptive as possible. In each room the children visited I asked one person to be prepared to talk for 1-2 minutes about what happened in that room (in English). We split the children into two groups so that it wasn?t too many in one room at one time.

Use of Video If you want a short break use funny, or thought provoking business related clips from Youtube, TED or Videojug You might not want to use Alec Baldwin?s sales pep talk from Glengarry Glen Ross (even for over 18s) which quite apart from the bad language could put people off business for ever (unless you want to contrast the Hollywood image of sales management with a more normal business reality). However, for older children, some business related video may be helpful

Games and workshops It?s hard to forecast how these are going to work. The children have to be committed. For small children a shopping game was somewhat complicated. For older children breaking up into teams who have think of ?reasons to come to our school? is a good marketing exercise, which encourages discussion about what features and benefits a school has and develops communication skills both within the team and in front of the rest of the group

Departure/End of visit We took various photos during the visit, and ended with photos in front of the company front door which is a natural and suitable end



Figure 3 Farewell photo and back to school


Other

We drew the children?s attention to the fact that this was a voluntary initiative. the only PMR staff involved (Karolina, Marcelina, Magdalena) were those who had chosen to be involved. Our culture and values support giving staff time. But doesn?t compel them to take part. A small group of willing helpers was enough to make a success.

Post visit
PMR intend to put photos of the children on our web site so that they can go back to the web site The school children are discussing their visit and what they learned

Communication and appreciation. The kids are making a thank you card which will be handed over to PMR. It is important that they understand the fact that those who choose to host a visit are making an commitment that deserves to be appreciated


Conclusions

This was a successful visit. We wanted

to demonstrate that it is "never too early" to get children into the workplace, and to challenge Theory X thinking, promoting Mcgregorian Theory Y (A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work and that there is a pool of unused creativity in the workforce. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation in and of itself.), that

make a contribution to Global Entrepreneurship Week by identifying very simple projects that any company or parent or school can initiate anywhere in the world.

give the children an enjoyable activity. For sure we achieved these goals, and the investment of staff time was probably not more than 4 hours in total. Parents paid about US$4 each towards the cost of transport to and from the company.

Beyond this, we achieved something that we didn't expect. Many PMR staff were captivated and thrilled by the presence of very young children from India, Poland, Holland, Germany, Japan, Korea and Poland . The effects of seeing that PMR was a work place where unusual things happen was powerful, and it was genuine challenge for members of staff to summarize what their department does in a way that is clear to a 3 year old.



Annex 1 Parent Survey used by children in this project

Dear Parents,

Next week the Nursery children will start learning about grown-ups, the places they work at, their jobs, occupations, etc. In relation to this, we would like to find out what their Parents do jobwise.
Together with Year 5 we have prepared a short questionnaire, which you will find below. Please fill it in or help your child to complete it and bring it back to school on Monday 5th May 2008.
Of course the survey is not obligatory we would, however, greatly appreciate your cooperation.
Also, if anyone would be interested in coming to school and talking about her/his job to the kids, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Should you have any questions, please ask.
Thank you!

Nursery and Year 5 Teachers