From 7 to 17 of January KIU student of the faculty of management and engineering business Karina Khaleyeva did an internship in Singapore.
The internship was associated with the WorldSkills championship in “Entrepreneurship” competence.
- Singapore is called “Modern Uropia”, “Land of innovations”, “Territory of the future”. Which impressions of this place did you get?
- Right after we left the airport and took a breath of Singapore air, our delegation started noticing customer-oriented approach of business: in taxi or supermarket, for example. The training was held in English in two business incubators. One of them was a private business incubator AppleSeed where we found out about how to present yourself and raise interest among investors. Each slide of a successful presentation was thoroughly analyzed, and most importantly we tried to figure out what a potential investor wants to see in a startup or a team which he invests in. In the end we presented our projects and received a feedback from our great lecturer Kumaran Pillai. The second business incubator operates on a basis of the Republican polytechnic school where we spent most of our time. We discussed points of interest of every entrepreneur, starting from ideas generation, understanding of market and customers, to financial indicators. Our lecturer Kenneth Ong not only delivered lectures, but also met us with his student who already have their own businesses and successfully implement them at business incubators, and investors who shared their experience in startup activities.
- Is the Singapore educational system very different from Russian? What seemed the most curious?
- We were interested in everything: how the classes are given, how the future entrepreneurs are taught. Practice-oriented education catches the special interest. For example, students of Singapore polytechnic school must create their own startup in the first year!
- How did you spend your free time?
- Apart from intensive 8-hours-long classes, we did enjoy this beautiful country. We visited zoo, oceanarium, Sentosa Island, saw the night show in downtown. We tried Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Thai food and indulged in tasting local fruits. For example, durian – this fruit is forbidden to eat outside, according to Singapore law. All in all, the internship was incredibly interesting and, which is more important, helpful. I will do my best to apply the knowledge I got there and pull the maximum effort to present myself and Kazan Innovative University on the championship.