We would like to see if foreign lecturers can play an active role in Japanese education field

Q.Why did your company decide to take on interns? What did you aim to achieve?

Our company operates cram schools mainly in Nagano Prefecture, and we celebrated our 41th anniversary in 2018. Under our corporate philosophy that, in an era of chaotic change, human resource development becomes an opening to a bright future, we have been pushing forward with our educational business. Until now, education services has been said to be a difficult industry for foreigners to work in because most of the students are Japanese. However, receiving instruction from foreigners who have different backgrounds, such as in terms of knowledge and values ​​not found among the Japanese, will expand the future possibilities of the students and improve their English proficiency. For our staff, too, we have felt for some time that cooperation with foreign personnel will expand their horizons as education professionals and help them to grow. We have decided to apply for this program because we are planning to expand into Southeast Asian countries in the future.

providing instruction individually tailored to each student and new plans!

Q.What kind of internship did you run? What difficulties did you face and how did you resolve them?

Since we wanted to determine the effects of foreign personnel engaged in education for Japanese students, we asked him to engage in the same activities as our Japanese staff. We had the intern participate in English lessons, communication with students, such as responding to questions about school study, and cleaning and tidying of the classrooms, as well as having him participate in weekly meetings where our instruction policy was decided according to the students' school schedule. For the students, we made time during "home room" for the intern to give them a presentation about Indonesia and talk about his own experiences. His PowerPoint Presentation on Indonesia, in particular, was a tour de force with 70 slides, and it gave the students a chance to experience a different culture and learn about the differences between Indonesia and Japan. In addition, at the intern's suggestion, we held "English Talk Sessions" to help the high school students become more familiar with English. The intern himself taught the students in such a way as to have them experience the fun of speaking English by using the students' hobbies and interests as the themes of conversation.

Student attitudes to learning have changed and their achievements have improved!
It was an opportunity for staff to reconsider their communication methods

Q.Comparing before and after the internship, what effects did it have on you, your employees, or your organization?

It has had a great effect on both the students and the Japanese staff. First, was the change in the students. With the "English Talk Sessions" devised by the interns, the feeling of "English = evaluation = tough discomfort" disappeared, and it became possible for the students to speak English in front of the interns without feeling nervous. Among them, there were students who improved their English test scores by 40 points, and we were really surprised at such a change. Second, was the change way of in communication of Japanese staff. Since they started making a point to "communicate in an easy-to-understand way" with interns that have different values ​​and ideas, the staff have become more aware of viewpoints and comprehension levels in their communication between themselves, and the quality of their communication has improved. This was an unexpected result. With this hosting of interns, it was demonstrated that even foreigners can play an important role in the Japanese education industry, and we learned the importance of accepting diversity without the prejudice of due to personnel "being a foreigner". We plan to continue to collaborate with the intern and promote our overseas expansion. That we were able to meet such people was also another benefit.