Internship report at english center

Part2: Through observation, figure out RES work environment and regulations for employees Part3: Describe my main mission at RES, the technical and human skills learned from the Internsh

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 1

1 COMPANY PROFILE 2

1.1 Background of the company 2

1.2 Nature of business carried 2

1.3 Teachers 2

1.4 Product supports 2

1.5 Organizational structure and funtions of some specific departments 3

2 WORK ENVIRONMENT AND REGULATIONS 4

2.1 Work environment 4

2.2 Regulations 6

3 INTERNSHIP MISSION AND LEARNED SKILLS 7

3.1 My internship mission 7

3.2 Office skills learned from the Internship 8

3.3 Other skills 9

4 APPLYING 5 FORCE MODEL AND SWOT IN PERSUADING STUDENTS TO TAKE THE PLACEMENT TESTS 10

4.1 Theoretical framework 10

4.2 Applying 5 force model and SWOT to RES English center 11

4.3 Using 5 force model and SWOT to persuade students to take the placement tests 13

5 SUGGESTION 16

CONCLUSION 19

REFERENCES 20

Undeniable, English becomes more and more popular which is used by nearly 1 billion people in the world This number is still increasing everyday showing the vital position of English against other languages Futhermore, in an informative new era, exactly eight in ten information reserved from over 100 million computers in the world is

in English as well as the massive mojority (85%) of international phone calls A lot of computer softwares, electronics guidebooks use English as a main language Many young people, consequently, regard English as an essential factor of getting a better job and a high promotion Not only multinational but also Vietnamese companies require English as

a minimal recruitment condition RES (Reliable English School) grasped this trend and founded in 2008, so far, it has become one of the leading English centers in terms of IELTS, TOEIC and General English courses

In the third year, we have opportunity of taking the internship, during which we can observe, experience a real worklife My study was conducted at RES center at 2, 850 Lane, Lang Street My study is divided into 5 parts:

Part1: Study the organizational structure and funtions of some specific departments

Part2: Through observation, figure out RES work environment and regulations for employees

Part3: Describe my main mission at RES, the technical and human skills learned from the Internship and how they are applied

Part4: Study 5 force model and SWOT analysis to evaluate RES as well as applying them into persuading students to take the placement tests

Part5: General summary of the internship and personal suggestion

1 COMPANY PROFILE

1.1 Background of the company

RES (Reliable English School) is a one member co., Ltd It specializes in IELTS, TOEIC as well as General English courses There are four branches located in Hanoi and

Ho Chi Minh city RES is going to open two more branches in Ho Chi Minh city and Da Nang city which raises the total number of ones up to six In Hanoi, two RES branches locate in Lang street and Ba Trieu street, respectively

1.2 Nature of business carried

Actually, the industry RES is running is service and its main products are English classes In General English courses, students are acquainted with basic pronunciation along with fundamental vocabulary and grammar However, product taking all eyes on is IELTS classes with full of 4 skills like one real IELTS tests RES, particularly, also opens classes focusing on two special skills including Speaking and Listening Furthermore, RES has TOEIC classes for those who aim at getting 350 to 800 in score The schedule of classes is flexible which varies month by month

1.3 Teachers

RES invites many high quality native and Vietnamese teachers The majority of native teachers were graduated from famous universities in England, Australia, American and Canada They have a lot of experience and skills in teaching IELTS Many Vietnamese teachers work as a lecture at Foreign Trade University, National or Hanoi University and most of them have bachelor or master at England and America majoring in language

1.4 Product supports

Besides main products, RES supplies students with many English course supports such as self-study room, library with lots of IELTS and TOEIC books, free extra classes

such as vocabulary & pronunciation, Listening & Reading for IELTS, snacks for students during breaks, discounts or scholarships, etc

1.5 Organizational structure and funtions of some specific departments

Figure 1: RES organizational structure (source: RES training material from material departments)

Ms Yen is a leader of RES who takes charge of important missions She is the one

“coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that their activities are completed efficiently and effectively” (S.P Robbins and M Coulter, Management 11th

edition, page 8)

Each branch has one chief advisor and one vice-chief advisor Their main task is

“motivating, leading and any other actions involved in dealing with people” (S.P Robbins and M Coulter, Management 11th edition, page 9), advising students who take the placement tests how to learn English effectively Especially, the chief advisor has more

Teams and departments Vice-chief advisor Chief advisor

General Manager Ms Yến

Ms Ngọc

Ms Nhung

Booking team

Take-care level team

Accounting department

Material department

Ms Phượng

Ms Hằng

power than her subordinates in arranging working time and bonus for all employees, deciding the schedule of classes as well as different levels of discount for students

Booking team includes 1 full-time and 2 part-time employees This team needs to book the schedule for those who want to take the placement tests, check the testing room frequently, guide students to complete the tests then socre their tests and arrange the advisor

All employees in take-care level team are divided into 4 levels including IELTS Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and TOEIC Each level finds potential students from the placement tests, English club held by RES every week, writing and speaking conferences as well as monthly IELTS trial tests Their main job is persuading students coming to RES and paying the tuition fees

Staffs of accouting department need to collect tuition fees or other charges from students, pay salary and bonus for employees and teachers as well as other administration costs, monitor RES financial status, payment documents, income and expenditure accounts, etc

Material department takes charge of arranging teachers, preparing all English course materials, suitable facilities such as air-conditoner, remarkers, CD-player

2 WORK ENVIRONMENT AND REGULATIONS

2.1 Work environment

Work environment means everything relating to employee’s involvement with the work such as the relationship with co-workers, superiors, organizational structure, etc A positive work environment makes employees feel comfortable when working which motivate them to sustain throghout the day (Michael Poh, 2011) According to Michael Poh, there are 5 qualities to assess whether the work environment is healthy or not such as transparent & open communication, work-life balance, training & development-focused, recognition for hard work and, last but not least, strong team spirit Assessing one office’s

work environment before applying a job is vital for everyone in order not to do the same boring job everyday Because of the different job specifications, these qualities cannot be applied to all types of jobs However, like the author said: “they are pretty universal in that sense” (Michael Poh, 2011)

2.1.1 Transparent & Open communication

A healthy work environment will make the employee feel that their words are valuable RES has monthly open discussions getting people involving and allowing them

to share their opinions and perspectives of how to achieve company goals In friendly atmosphere, employees freely contribute their ideas, review failure and suggest solutions

In these meetings, they share idea in turn and no one is ignored

2.1.2 Work-life balance

In general, having work-life balance will improve job satisfaction among employees, make them more confident about themselves and do their best at work RES seems to be weak at this quality Sometimes, employees are forced to receive extra-work with no bonus even when they already spend 8 hours at work, which exhausts them and puts their work productivity down

2.1.3 Training & Development-focused

It is essential for an organization to keep up with the changes and train employees accordingly Before becoming official staffs, all employees are trained in 4 days without any charge In working period, if there is any change in documents or regulations, RES employees are fully trained and guided

2.1.4 Recognition for hard work

When hard work is appreciated by managers and approximately rewarded, employees will realize that what they have done is worthy and try to perform better next time Every month, RES assesses employees’ results and then, decide the suitable level of bonus for them Normally, part-time employees are rewarded from 200 to 500 thousand dong while the full-times receives 2 to 3 million dong

2.1.5 Strong team spirit

Working as a team makes employees feel that they work for something bigger than themselves All RES employees are divided into small teams As a result, achievement is counted for every team Team members have responsibility of promoting and helping each other in order to gain the best result

2.2 Regulations

RES uses financial fines if one employee breaks the rules; however, rarely do they use this punishment

2.2.1 Working hour

There are 3 shifts for employees to choose Shift 1 starts from 8am to 12am and 2pm to 6pm corresponding shift 2, then followed by shift 3 which is from 5pm to 9pm Actually, RES employees do not comply with the rule of puntuation They are usually 10

to 15 minutes late

2.2.2 Dress code

RES respects its employees’ own styles As a result, the general manager allows her employees to dress whatever they do like, but limiting the choice The limitation, from her point of view, is that the dress must not be too indecent Therefore, RES employees’ dresses are usually nice but still professional

2.2.3 Work completion

Employees need to complete their job under the chief advisor’ arrangement, and then, write a report about work done If one cannot meet the deadline without any excuses, his wage will be deducted Sometimes, one’s results are more important than his workload

2.2.4 Extra work

Employees, if having request of doing extra work during Tet holiday or any other holidays, must not refused At the end of each month, the amount of work is huge so chief advisor ussually forces all employees to do extra-work

2.2.5 During working hours

Staffs must not use Facebook, Yahoo, Skype, Mail or any other social media while working They should limit using mobile phones for calling or texting message as well as listening to music and chatting wit other staffs

3 INTERNSHIP MISSION AND LEARNED SKILLS

3.1 My internship mission

I was assigned to booking team in which the main job is taking care of students who want to take the placement tests from the time they book online on the Internet until they finish the test Booking source comes solely from online form on website of RES Customers need to fill the basic questions such as name, telephone, testing day and time

at their request Our team, in turn, calls them to confirm the schedule, text the message to remind them of Res address, testing day and time If they come to Res and take the placement test, we succeed The process of our placement test is as follows: Before anyone takes the test, we check the testing room in regard to air conditioner, CD player, table seats, the light Then, our team needs to guide students to complete the test, show the testing form and time The placement test includes 3 parts: Vocabulary and Grammar, Reading, and Listening When students finish the 1st and 2nd parts, we help them to do the

3rd part – listening Once someone completes all parts, we score their answer sheets, let them check the answer and arrange one advisor guiding and suggesting them a suitable English class Whereas, if they miss the test, we try to contact them to rearrange another schedule

3.2 Office skills learned from the Internship

At RES, I learn to safely and properly use office equipments such as photocopier,

CD player, phones and computer The first time using photocopier, I tried to copy students’ documents without any guide although I had no idea how to put the paper in a right position That’s why the documents were wrongly copied which was different from

my expectation I called for help and then, once employee showed me the way to put the paper on the surface of photocopier and that copying one paper is very different from copying one Identity Card

There are many phones at Res including landlines and mobile phones Whenever someone calls to Res, the first reply is that it is Res English center and how we can help you Employees, after hearing one call must take notes of speaker’s name, purpose of the call and transfer it into a calling book

I also learn how to file documents In other words, I arrange and store records in an orderly and efficient manner Res has a variety of documents stored in distinct folders such as placement tests, running classes, potential of classes, booking lists, etc Be an official, the first thing one should learn is how to find and store a document One notice is that when one staff takes the document out of the folder, he must store in the same place

If any document was found on the table or anywhere, he will be fined Each folder, with name on its cover, is arranged in chronological order so that it is easy for staff to find the right folder

Knowing how to use Microsoft word and Excel is also an important skill for any official For Res employees, we focus using Microsoft Excel to write the report Each week, a lot of reports are written and sent to the general manager In a booking position, besides writing the report, we use Excel for the source of students taking the placement

tests However, sometimes student names occur 2 or 3 times, we need to filter the lists in order not to bother them

Above all, the office skill that is most important is customer service We need to behave in flexible ways towards different kinds of person However, the same thing in customer service is that we need to smile when talking to students in every situation as well as always showing the gentle manner For instant, we show the politeness to old people while pleasant and friendly to the young Everytime, when one enters Res center, employees always need to smile and ask “How can I help you” We realize that we should neither solve student problems beyond our control nor refuse student’s requests directly

3.3 Other skills

In addition to office skills, I also learn how to prove other skills such as communicating, team working, observation and problem solving Communicating skill means that we can persuade students effectively in a win-win way The highest level of persuading students is to force them to attend any class of RES Besides, learning how to work as a team is also essential especially for RES employees As a team, we always have

a team leader; therefore, other team members need to follow his requests It doesn’t mean

we must comply with his wrong decision We have the right to show our opinions providing our team’s result is better Working as a team, we try to help each other, learn from their experience and together achieve our goals

Furthermore, I try to observe other employees working to draw my own lessons – learning from their failure and researching how they succeed, is an efficient way to improve my working ability Daily contact with students, employees should know how to deal with the students problems Normally, we transfer all problems to take-care level employees who care each English class