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As a socially responsible company, OOCL is committed to giving back to the societies in which our colleagues live. At OOCL, we have long been involved in various volunteering programs, with a particular emphasis on ones related to youth education.

The School-Company-Parent Program (SCP), which is organized by the Young Entrepreneurs Development Council (YDC), is a joint effort among companies, schools and parents to foster an entrepreneurial spirit among young people in Hong Kong. More specifically, the program is aimed at helping secondary school students connect to the commercial world in order to acquire an entrepreneurial mindset and business skills prior to entering the workforce.

This marks the first year that OOCL is participating in this program. We believe that it is very meaningful, not only for its benefits for young students, but because it gives our colleagues an opportunity to experience unique and satisfactory volunteer work by interacting with the new generation. Three company ambassadors, Donald Tse (SHP-IRIS-ISD-OOCLL/HKG), Edward Ma (SHP-IRIS-ISD-OOCLL/HKG) and Renwill Yang (CLP-IRIS-ISD-OOCLL/HKG) from ISD have volunteered to participate in the program this year. They have been matched with a group of thirty Form 4 students from Pentecostal School in Homantin who have enrolled in this program.

From now, up until May this year, a series of 6 workshops will be organized for the students. The first orientation session was conducted last Saturday, March 10, 2012 and was a warm up session for Company Ambassadors (CAs) and students to get to know one another through games and various interactive activities. 

After introducing OOCL, our CAs introduced themselves to the students with a ‘Lifeline’ exercise to build a closer relationship with the students. They explained the meaning of “Contract Spirit” and its importance in the commercial world and students were then required to write down their commitments and objectives for the whole program. The students enjoyed the game “Building a Tower” which helped them think creatively and work together closely in teams.

Ms Heidi Tse, the Principal of Pentecostal School, is very supportive of this program. She came back to school on the Saturday especially to present the students with their Commitment Certificates and to encourage them to be seriously committed to this program. She also thanked OOCL for this opportunity to help their students learn about what society expects from them.

The team who performs best in each workshop will win the ‘Best Team Award’. There will also be 2 individual awards for the ‘Best Presenter’ (Student who presents most articulately) and the “Future Leader” (student who demonstrates the best leadership qualities within the team). At the end of the program, the team and students who have accumulated the most awards throughout the 6 workshops will be presented with the “Overall Best Team Award”, “Overall Best Presenter Award” and “Overall Best Leader Award” awards for the program.

There are 5 more sessions to go, with the last one taking place in mid May. The 2nd session will be held this coming Saturday, March 17. Stay tuned for another update next week!

OOCL Company Ambassadors chat before the orientation workshop	One of the student teams playing the Building Tower game	The school Principal, Ms Heidi Tse addressing the students