Year 10 Mindshop Excellence Work Experience Program 2019

Year 10 Mindshop Excellence Work Experience program 2019

Mindshop Excellence is a structured five-day work experience program involving a small group of Year 10 students who were placed with the host organisation, Ballarat City Council, where they were given a real problem to solve for the Council during the week.

Along with students from other local schools, our boys participated in a training session on Monday lead by Mindshop facilitators which gave the students the tools and processes to help solve problems presented by their host organisations.

The task for the students was ‘How can the City of Ballarat increase engagement with the New Resident Program.’ The program is a tangible gift for the city’s new residents which aims to help them settle into their lifestyle quickly and easily. Providing essential information on Council services, the program connects them to Ballarat businesses, to other new residents and encourages them to spend their money locally with the vouchers provided.

Students spent the Tuesday and Wednesday researching the problem and gathering the data and information to present their finding to the City of Ballarat. The group was able to utilise a variety of the tools and processes developed on the training day to help with solving the problem presented.

In conclusion, the students felt that the City of Ballarat must utilise more 21st century technology. Here are some of their findings:

• The production of the booklet is very costly in time and hours to produce.

• They suggested that the council should be developing more paper-less promotions in order to reduce waste.

• The development of an app may be a more useful and efficient tool to help any new residents that move into the Ballarat region with information and access to vouchers from local businesses, creating repeat customers.

• They believe that by increasing the effectiveness of the marketing of the new residents program through an app, the new resident engagement with the program will greatly increase.

 

The College wish to congratulate following students who so impressively represented the College throughout the week:
Darcy Williams
Hugh Ollerenshaw
Jack Sheehan
Harry Sharp
Sam Tilley – Group leader

Thank you to the parents for the support of this work experience program. The City of Ballarat, particularly Sam Magill, Pete Quon, Kelli Moran, Siobhan Dent, Caroline Foster, Francis Salenga and the Business Engagement Office. The SPC’s group facilitator was Julie Mason, Director and founder of Mindshop Excellence who supported the students throughout the week guiding and keeping them on task to present their findings to the City of Ballarat on the Friday. We thank Julie and Chris Mason and the other Facilitators. Finally, thanks to Jodie Gillett and Commerce Ballarat in the organisation and facilitation between the schools and hosts.

Julia Petrov
Director of Studies