Special Events

HSBC Bank Financial Literacy Projects Seminar

The teams which received funding under the 2008 HSBC Bank Financial Literacy Grants scheme are required to participate in a seminar that will run from 08:30 to 15:00 on Thursday 10 July.  The purposes of the seminar are:

• to enable best practice benchmarking and sharing of results of projects;
• to ensure that teams with are prepared for timely lodgement of their project report, and

The seminar will include one or more keynote presentations and two sessions of team presentations on the projects carried out using the grant funding, as follows:

08:30 - 08:45       Registration
08:45 - 09:00       Assemble and introductions
09:00 - 09:15       Keynote Address
09:15 - 10:00       Panel Discussion
10:00 - 10:30       Break
10:30 - 12:30       Team Presentations Session 1
12:30 - 13:00       Lunch
13:00 - 15:00       Team Presentations Session 2

Each team is required to present a written report of two pages maximum, supported by a further two pages of financial or other tabular/graphical data.  Each team may have only two presenters who may speak for a total of seven minutes and must face five minutes of questions.

Each team may illustrate their presentation with no more than two power point slides.  These are to be saved on a memory stick with a filename that identifies the team and will be loaded onto the computer provided prior to the start of each session.  These slides will be retained by SIFE Australia to assist with reporting on the seminar outcomes.

All presenting team members must attend the entire seminar, as a matter of professional courtesy to each other and to ensure the validity of their rankings of the team presentations.  All participants are expected to wear business attire.

Presentations will be judged by combining the popular vote of all attendees with rankings made by a panel of finance industry executives, chaired by a senior HSBC executive.  Presentations will be judged on a 10 point scale against the following criteria

• Part I  How effectively did the SIFE team develop a program or activity:
• Goals and Objectives: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic
• Program Overview: what demand or gap needed to be met or filled?
• Learning Content: proof of providing direct financial education
• Skills Development: proof of contribution to long-term financial literacy
• Audience/Reach: nature, number geographic dispersion
• Part II  In the development of the project, did the SIFE team effectively include the following:
• Curriculum/Content
• Hands-on/Mentoring Experience
• Teaching
• Program Assessment/Evaluation Tools
• Budget

In their presentations, teams should ensure that prominence is given to such matters as:

• corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues covered or highlighted by their project
• problems that had to be overcome to enable project implementation including completion
• key outcomes that their project achieved
• key issues that their project identified as suitable to be the basis of future projects, given the availability of funding

Both the official judges and peer assessors will be required to provide a list ranking the five teams which they feel best achieved the criteria.  The aggregate rankings of the official judging panel and those of the peer assessors will be weighted equally to give the overall results.  Based on the results, up to three teams will be chosen for meritorious program recognition and will receive a trophy and a share of a prize pool of $2,000.

Grant recipient teams travelling to Brisbane from interstate are required to arrive in time for the start of the event at 08:30 on Thursday.  Accordingly, additional accommodation support will be provided for two student members of each team for the evening of Wednesday 9 July.  Teams must provide the names of those attending by Friday 6 June.

Career Development Seminar

All registered SIFE students not graduating before December 2009 are eligible to attend a seminar that will run from 09:00 to 15:00 on Thursday 10 July.  The seminar will include both keynote presentations and participative discussion.  It will cover priority topics chosen in consultation with students and human resource managers but will include such matters as:

• job opportunities in Australia and internationally
• researching organisations and jobs for personal ‘best fit’
• personal presentation skills
• management development, further education and career progression within organisations

Objectives

The 2008 SIFE Australia Career Development Seminar has been restructured on the feedback from students and corporate partners in 2007.

NB.      Given that by July, many companies have completed their recruitment for the following year, the 2008 Seminar is designed specifically for students in their second last year at University with a view to career opportunities in 2010.
           
By registering for this seminar you will have the inside running as a SIFE student in understanding the recruitment process and timeline for application for a position in 2010.

Students are required to register for the Seminar by no later than Monday 30 June 2008.

The Seminar will give students a unique opportunity to:

• Hear in detail about recruitment and selection processes and career opportunities from some of Australia’s most successful blue chip companies, via a panel discussion.
• Address specific questions to panel members.
• Have a one on one discussion with prospective employers.

Format

The morning (09:00 – 12.30) will be used to conduct a panel with selected key partner representatives including Woolworths, Cadbury Schweppes, KPMG, Visy, HSBC, Coca Cola Amatil, Arnott’s, Procter & Gamble, Fonterra and QANTAS (and recently employed SIFE alumni from those partner companies), where each of the panellists will comment on the following:

• what they look for in graduates – general qualities, skills & competencies
• their recruitment processes and the timeline involved
• the advantage of employing students with SIFE experience
• the types of roles the company offers and in what departments/specialisations
• career paths that are open to graduates throughout their careers
• further developmental and educational opportunities offered by the company both internally and externally

The panel session will open up at each topic for questions from students.

From 13:00 to 15:00, students will have the opportunity to ask further questions and have individual discussions with partner representatives for approximately 15 minutes.

Students are required to register for discussions with a maximum of 4 nominated partners as part of the registration process.

Faculty Advisors ‘Initiate 21’ Seminar on Enterprise Education

All current and prospective Faculty Advisors are required to attend the I21 Seminar that will run from 10:00 to 15:00 on Thursday 10 July.  The seminar will be interactive and will comprise keynote presentations, panel sessions and plenary discussion.  In addition to presentation of refereed papers on the practise of enterprise education, it will focus on three key dimensions:

• SIFE ‘best practice’ process in working with student teams
• developing grants to facilitate conducting community projects
• linking research and SIFE to create publishable material on work undertaken by the SIFE teams and the mentoring role of faculty advisors

Top to Future Top Seminar

The Top to Future Top Seminar will be conducted between 09.30 and 11.30 on Saturday 12 July.  It provides a forum for interaction between CEOs/MDs of some of Australia’s leading corporations and selected SIFE students.

As part of on-line Team Registration, each team may nominate one student who is seen, by their FA and their peers, as a ‘future leader’.  All nominees will receive a short briefing memorandum on the structure of the seminar in advance of the national conference.

Only students from the teams which do not advance to the Semi Final Round will be eligible to attend.  It is advisable that the nominated student is also not required for any of the team’s ITC presentations because the seminar will be held on Saturday morning at the same time as the ITC Interview Round and national championship Semi Final Round.

Students chosen to attend are expected to participate in discussion, ask thoughtful questions and take the opportunity to represent themselves, their team, their university and their community at the highest level.  It is expected that they will bring their resumes and/or business cards.  Attendance will be confirmed at the conclusion of the Regional Round Awards Ceremony on Friday 11 July.