Oct. 01, 2020
Sumitomo Corporation Started “Mirai School” 100SEED Career Education Support at Tokyo Metropolitan Nishi High School
Sumitomo Corporation held its first Mirai School workshop at Tokyo Metropolitan Nishi High School on September 12 as its 100SEED Career Education Support. The event was held as a special Saturday seminar open to all students, and 37 students together with nine of their parents/supporters participated.
In 2019, the Sumitomo Corporation Group launched the 100SEED social contribution program to celebrate the centennial of its founding. As a result of global voting by Group employees around the world, “Quality Education” was selected as the global theme of the program, in which all Group employees will think and take actions together on a global scale. Based on this theme, employees have been conducting activities to meet the social issues faced by local communities in their respective regions.
The Mirai School Career Education Support is one of the four 100SEED activities* selected in Japan. In this activity, Sumitomo Corporation holds career planning workshops for senior high school students, in which its employees serve as lecturers to share diverse values and their own career experiences with the students, thereby helping them to think about their future careers and how the things they are learning at school are related to their future career choices. Through these workshops, Sumitomo Corporation aims to support development of the next generation of leaders for the future, and plans to hold another 19 workshops at 12 schools within this fiscal year.
On the day the workshop was held, Atsuhiko Yamaguchi and Taiki Onoue served as the lecturers. In the first period of the workshop, the lecturers introduced themselves and gave a quiz as an icebreaker, and then shared their views on work with the students, talking about their past careers. In the second period, the lecturers explained how students’ experiences were relevant to their jobs, and described points regarding career design that they thought were important for survival in this dramatically changing age. Students gave feedback such as “The workshop made me feel like devoting myself to what I can do now for the future,” “It was interesting to listen to real stories told by working adults,” and “I want to discuss the future more.” The workshop was indeed quite meaningful and valuable for both the students and the employees who served as lecturers.
- Four activities: In Japan, in addition to the “Mirai School Career EducationSupport”, Sumitomo Corporation has been planning and conducting three other activities for the following purposes: provide children born in other countries, who tend to be isolated in Japanese society, with an environment where they can learn with peace of mind as an “Multicultural Symbiosis Support for Foreign Children”; eliminate educational gaps by providing children in developing countries with free-of-charge learning materials through the “Online Education with Smartphone”; and support enhancement of the management foundation of NPOs engaging in education as a “Pro-Bono for Educational NPOs.”
