Experiences I Gained in the Past Few Months

    Hi, my friends. I’m Xuan from the Marketing and Advertising department. In fact, I was an intern in March, and after the internship, I became a permanent staff of Vision. Now, I’m going to share with you, what experiences have I gained in the past few months.

    First of foremost, I assisted with covid-19 Antigen Test Kit from Norman, China. We’ve provided test kits to a lot of companies and pharmacies. Therefore, I need to follow up on their response. If the company is interested in purchasing our test kits and it is the first time, I should write a quotation to let them know how much the test kits will cost before they commit to the purchase. Otherwise, I will prepare test kits for frequent customers when I receive their purchase order (PO). Usually, the test kits will be sent via Lalamove and Pos Laju or self-collect. I will issue an invoice and delivery order to customers once the test kits were delivered. I shall make sure they receive the invoice and DO, and process their payment later.

    Moreover, I’ve been attending various education fairs or roadshows in Johor, Kedah, Penang, and Klang Valley roadshow. I attend non-bumi education fairs in Johor, Kedah and Penang with Vinie. It’s quite interesting because know other universities or colleges representative each other, learning interactive skills and the skills to convince students to study at Vision College. For instance, education fairs organized by CourseMap, Further Education Network (FEN) and Focus Education. But before all of this, I need to make sure that I recognize which programme is qualified for students and must be familiar with all foundation, diploma and degree programmes offered as well as loans and scholarships available to students. Then, is Klang Valley roadshow. Unexpectedly, before East Coast, Southern and central roadshow, I was responsible for booked all the venues for 7 days roadshows, and arranging passing routes from one venue to another venue. I must write an application letter to the Person in Charge and confirm rental payment. During Klang Valley roadshow, I went with experienced staff, and learn a lot of things and skills.

    Then, is agent students. I have temporarily replaced Daniel in handling agent students since he is away and on the roadshow. From the agent side, I learned more about patience due to agent students being quite special. We don’t know what agents promise them, I can only do my best to let them safe and comfortable. In this case, I should counselor the students first, explain programme details to them, including hostel, process their registration and check documents. In addition, I shall arrange meetings with marketing head and both local and international education consultants (agents) for recruiting students to study at Vision College. The meetings can be arranged physically or virtually, it depends on the situation of the education consultants.

    The positive value I gained when working at Vision College is patience. We have to be patient with problems or troubles, especially talking to students and parents. Confidence. There has to be confidence in persuading students, they will trust us as usual. Courageous. We should be courageous when completing the task given, don’t be afraid to learn from mistakes. Responsibility. We have to be responsible for every task and help each other, because we’re a team. Caring. We also should care about colleagues, students and parents.

Prepared by,

Chang Zhi Xuan

Executive of Marketing & Media Department.

 

Experiences & Lessons I Learned from Previous Roadshow

    Today, I’m going to share a little bit about the experiences and lessons that I have learned from the series of roadshows I participated in during the last few months.

    So, this is the first roadshow I have attended after joining Vision College. An education fair at Pavilion Bukit Jalil, which is to build awareness of the market.

    Next, I visited Johor, Kluang, Segamat, and Muar and gave a simple presentation to the students and parents about Vision College professional courses and education pathway. Beside that, I also attended education fairs organized by student recruitment agents in Kedah and Penang. After that, I participated in the Vision College roadshows, from July to September.

    First of all, what have I learned from these roadshows?

    The first is good planning skills. It is important because before you go on a roadshow, you have to request for advanced cash from the company. But before that, you need to know details of the upcoming event, e.g. the venue, the trip itinerary, the mileage claims, hotel booking, cost of toll, venue rental fees and others. For example, some venues require you to pay in cash, and some online banking. So, before you arrive at the venue, you need to plan ahead and prepare for everything. Another example will be, from your hotel to the first venue, how much time and distance will it take? Then, what time is best for you to check out the hotel? You also need to anticipate the uncertainties, because they might be traffic jams at a certain time? This all must be included in the planning.

    Second, I got to experience getting along with my colleagues/coworkers. Every roadshow, I get partnered with different colleagues. Male and female, most of them are Malay and Indian. So, when we go on road shows together, we will eat together, work together, and I also went to Masjid many times already, as my Muslim partners need to pray sometimes. From here, you will learn how to get along with them, respect each other, help each other, even we all from different races. It should not be a problem.

    Furthermore, I developed quick-thinking and emergency responses. You should think faster and be decisive when an emergency happens. For example, during our last roadshow, the event venue was at Balai Bomba Port Dickson. Due to a sudden emergency, they were unable to rent us the venue at the last minute. In the end, I changed the venue to a restaurant beside the fire station. Immediately, we contacted the students and parents on the change of venue.

    Moreover, if you participate in these roadshows, you learn to look and sound confident during the interview sessions. So, before you go to the roadshow, you need to make sure you understand the product knowledge clearly with the NEGARAKU counselling manual. You must know how to read a student's SPM results. Once you assess the SPM grades, you know what course he/she is eligible to enroll in. When parents ask you many questions, you will know how to answer confidently. If you are unable to do so confidently, parents and students will not be confident or believe in you, which leads to them not enrolling at Vision. One more thing is, everytime we go for a roadshow we need to dress formally, “Dress to Impress”. When you dress formally, people will have more confidence in you, because it looks more professional and gives a better impression.

    Last but not least, it’s about how to manage stress? From my own experience, I will find a way to enjoy the journey while working. For example, I enjoy the scenery along the way, when free I will go to the beach, and every trip I will record down the video, edited after comeback, so it will be a very good memory for me. With the meal allowance given, you can eat what you want. Hahaha, laying on bed to watch TV shows at night, it helps me to reduce my stress.

    That’s all from my sharing today, thank you for listening!

Prepared by,

Khew Wei Ly

Executive of Marketing & Media Department.