Business China is pleased to bring you the newly launched E3 Workshop

Excite students to want to know about contemporary and future China. 
Explore China through learning about its language, culture and social conditions. 
Experience China and the changing face of its society personally. 

Excite, Explore & Experience are the three fundamentals that form the E3 workshop conceptualized by Business China. E3 workshop is a preparatory workshop for tertiary students before they embark on an immersion journey in China. With more than a thousand local tertiary students going to China for immersion programmes annually, Business China believes it is critical for as many students to understand the chronological developments of modern China and its social strata to have a fruitful journey.

“Students who go to China for the very first time may not appreciate the tremendous changes that have taken place over the last three decades. At the same time, any short-term stay will only bring the students into contact with a small segment of the 1.3 billion Chinese society. The purpose of the E3 Workshop is to help the students put their experience into proper perspective,” said Mrs Josephine Teo, CEO of Business China.Business China, together with Nanyang Technological University(NTU), organised the first E3workshop for 100 students under NTU’s Global Immersion Programme(GIP). It was held this morning at NTU’s Lee Kong Chian Lecture Theatre Function Room.

Comprising of interactive games and intimate sharing sessions by a China-issues specialist and the past participants of GIP, the E3 workshop aims to engage students in a less formal and interesting setting. Topics like the characteristics of 4 major Chinese cities, the social structure of China and the cultural differences between Singapore and China were covered. The specialist also offered tips to students on ways to make best use of their work and study opportunities.

Daniel Poh, 22, a student from Accountancy (School of Business) said, “The speaker has allowed me to understand the people from different parts of China better.  At the same time, it taught me to open up my heart and to take the initiative to get to know the Chinese personally.”

The students who attended the E3 workshop will leave for various parts of China next month, to Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou and Chengdu. They will be working and studying at these major cities for a period of 22 weeks. During this period, they will study Chinese culture, contemporary history, politics and economics at renowned universities such as Tsinghua, Fudan and Shanghai Jiaotong. They will also be attached to multinational companies and leading Chinese enterprises in various industrial parks in one of the world’s most dynamic and fast-growing economies.

Students will be encouraged to share their experiences through the new media, “Go East” Blog. This will allow the students to communicate and network with each other before, during and after their internships.

Since 2008, about 410 students have participated in the similar preparatory workshops organised by Business China. For the year 2010, there will be tentatively five E3 Workshops, reaching out to more students from various institutions. E3 Workshop is one of the core programmes of Go East, an initiative of Business China. The Go East initiative is targeted at Singapore students, particularly those in Institutes of Higher Learning. It seeks to expose these students to the changing face of Chinese society and helps them gain ground experience in China.