ABSORB: Asian University Business School On Running Business.

Making juice

A group of the Business faculty’s undergraduates have been teaching basic business to some of the pupils at the nearby Phinjam Wichasorn secondary school in Chak Ngaew village.

The Asian University students were recently awarded a grant of $650 by the SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) organization and they are using this money to fund their project. (Just three countries received SIFE awards in the SIFE 2007 - 2008 Economic Opportunity Project Grants category, Asian University in Thailand, and students’ groups in China and Korea.)

They decided to use the funding to help them to run a business training workshop at a local school. The programme gave the pupils basic information on the importance of planning, looking at costs and income, demand and supply, profit and loss.

Customers come to buy tasty snacks

The University President, Dr Viphandh Roengriyapithya joined the students for the first session, on 29 January, and addressed the pupils from M6 and M3 about business ethics. The University students then took over the class and begun by mixing the pupils and setting them some simple tasks in the form of a game. The Asian University students have visited twice each week since, and the final session was on 22 February.

Bic tastes the food

The pupils were divided into four groups, each about ten youngsters, with a university student to guide each team. Each group then chose what they would do, wrote a business plan, and set up a small business, making and selling food and drinks to their friends and teachers at lunchtime and after school. They were given 1,000 baht seed money to start the business, and were told that they would have to pay this back at the end of the project.

The businesses chose to make fried chicken and somtam, sweet corn ice desert (nam kang sai), sandwiches with coffee and tea, and the fourth group fried chicken pieces and French fries.

The winning team, making fried chicken and somtam, succeeded in making a profit of 580 baht, and only one team made a small loss, although they still had some saleable inventory, so would hopefully be able to break even. The pupils had an incentive to make a profit as they were able to keep their profits. At the end of the project the Asian University students told them that they could keep their seed money as a reward, and also to encourage them to future business projects.

This project has given the University students a chance to try their hands at teaching, it has made them realize how much they have learnt, and it is also an opportunity to give something back to the local community.

Ann helps the youngsters count the money.

The School principal thanked the Asian University students for all their help, and was given certificates from the University to pass on to the pupils at the school who had participated.

The final tally: the winning team made a profit of 580 baht