Kategoria: KV-merkonomi

Julkaistu

Studying in English is not as hard as we thought

We are two first-year students studying a vocational qualification in business in English.

At first, we thought that it would be hard to study in English. We were not sure that we could get in here with our English level. We were surprised when we got the email about the acceptance letter to this department. First months were harder because we had to adapt into using English at school but now that we have studied here for about 7 months and have been in an on-the-job learning period, we realize that it is not as hard as we thought it would be.

Your speaking and writing skills will improve a lot when you study here. No one judges the way you speak English and we are all here to learn. A lot of our tasks require writing in English and even if you don’t yet understand something the teachers usually can also explain it in Finnish. If you’re interested in this field of study we recommend to attend the entrance exams even if you’re not sure about coming here.

IBCP Business student, 16 years
IBCP Business student, 16 years

Julkaistu

2nd year students Joni, Elias, Alicia and Eerik share their thoughts on business studies in English

What is it like to study in English? 

It different but in a good way. It’s a change for most of us who have studied only in Finnish. We’d say it’s nicer than in Finnish – that is you are good at English and are willing to learn in English. You get the routine of learning in a different language quite quickly.  

How do IB studies differ from the Finnish business program (merkonomi)? 

Well obviously, you need to study in English. IB studies develop more of you own critical thinking and creativity + reading and writing skills. Overall the IB learner profile aims to develop your whole personality. 

What’s the most fun at OSAO? 

The atmosphere is nice and chill. The premises are nice, there are places for us to hang out and a lot of things to do outside lessons as well: playing cards, doing exercises with iWall, playing billiards and air hockey. Or you could buy candy or other snacks from the cafes. Also the food is good!  

What kind of projects have you had? 

We have organized different events such as open doors for 9th grades, Europe day for all students and teachers in our unit. For classroom projects we do a lot of presentations and some longer text reports like a reflective project of our IB studies 

How can you see internationality in your program? 

We speak English inside and outside the classroom. We have cultural studies e.g. we learn about different business cultures. There are different students from various backgrounds in our school. 

Text and picture: Anni Saaranen 

Julkaistu

Notes from my on-the-job learning in K-Supermarket Toppila

Nea Koivurova, a 2nd-year student in vocational qualification in business and management (kansainvälinen merkonomi), wrote a learning diary from her first on-the-job learning period and shares some of her notes to Business Times readers. Enjoy!

Duties, week 1

  • Instructions on how to do different tasks: making complaints, scanning products and unloading products into the shelves
  • do’s and don’ts
  • clean out the plastic and cardboard scraps that were left from the unloaded products; taking them to an energy waste bin or a special cardboard press 
  • assisting some customers. If I did not know how to assist a customer, I would ask another employee for more help.

An excerpt from my learning diary from the first week 

…Today I unloaded a bunch of goods that came in from big trucks. I think I unloaded some 3-4 carts. Most of the carts are mixed up, so you must really explore all the store to find out the place of the products. I also learned to order different products and to also make new labels of the products that did not have labels. I learnt how to find different products in the store’s system and could assist customers more because of that.

 Me and my supervisor talked about how the on-the-Job learning things work. She told me that she wants me to work in the cashier side at some point during the 7 weeks I’ll be working here. I am really looking forward to this, but the only problem is that I must ring another employee always if a customer is buying something that has an age limit of 18. I’ll also get to work with the calculations and some percentage things in the future which I am both nervous and excited about.

Although my first day was really nice and easy and the time seemed to fly, I really find the first week to be the hardest in general because I have to remember so many new things and there are a lot of new people around me and I want to give good impressions…

Duties, week 7                   

  • designing some “winter baskets” and putting them on display at the Vegetables & fruits section. Really nice!
  • helping around the store 
  • unloading carts 
  • doing social media: being on the store’s Facebook by posing with a giveaway item
  • finishing all my exercises for school

Beforehand it felt like 2 months was a long time to work and do school assignments, but I have realized that it goes by very fast. During the last week I had an interview with my supervising teacher and my supervisor. I was extremely anxious about the meeting since I do not know how my exercises went and I procrastinated a lot. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience and I am thinking about applying for a summer job here. I will ask about this after or during the meeting to see if it’s possible.

Text: Nea Koivurova

Editing: Anni Saaranen