Poly Business Students Seeking Projects

[Guest ketchup]

Dear forumers

A batch of final year polytechnic students are looking for company sponsors for their final year projects. In groups of 4-6, they can conduct feasibility studies of new products/services and new markets, market research, and financial projections. The projects last up to 9 months.

Companies will find this particularly useful for new business initiatives.

There are no professional fees charged. But companies must sponsor expenses incurred. This will cost below $1k.

If you think your company will be keen on this, please contact me at [email protected], and include your name, contact details, company name and company background, etc.

First come first served basis, and the number of available groups are limited. So please contact me ASAP.

Please see below for more details. Thanks!

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COMPANY-SPONSORED PROJECTS

New Venture Planning

Our final year students, School of Business, Singapore Polytechnic will undertake a project-based module called New Venture Planning. The purpose of this module is to enable our students to practise the skills and knowledge learned in our Business Diploma Programme to real-life situations. This particular module requires our students to gather data that will support and substantiate their business ideas and to develop the business ideas into business plans.

What is a company-sponsored project?

To add a high degree of realism and entrepreneurship into the module, companies are actively sought after to sponsor the students in their projects. Sponsors can make use of the projects to obtain value for money services and business information that they want. The nature of the services in the past included feasibility studies of new products/services and new markets, market research, and financial projections.

Structure of the company-sponsored project

The company-sponsored project serves two purposes. Firstly, the project is a service to the sponsor. Secondly, the students must also satisfy the academic requirements of the module. The curriculum requirement of the module is divided into three phases:

1. Preliminary Assessment (PA)

· Macro-environmental scanning

· Industry analysis

2. Marketing and Management (M&M)

· An analysis of the micro-environment – customers, competitors, suppliers

· Market research (for example, administration of questionnaires for consumer-type products/services. We can also conduct interviews or secondary data research for business-to-business organisations).

· Recommendations for the Marketing-mix

3. Financial Plan

· 2-year financial forecasts for new start-ups

· For existing product/services – preparation of a budget/cost & benefits analysis for implementation of marketing mix.

There will be two interim reports and presentations (for PA and M&M phases) and one final report and presentation to the company-sponsor. As the continuous feedback from the sponsor is critical to the project, a contact person from the sponsor is necessary for the students to liaise with and to obtain information from. However, the time required from the contact person is minimal.

Important deadlines

Contact between sponsors and students begin: April

1st interim report and presentation: June/July

2nd interim report and presentation: August/September

Final report and presentation: To be arranged

Sponsorship Fees

The fee is $900 plus 7% GST per project. Companies can sponsor more than 1 project at the same time. The fees will mainly cover the expenditure incurred by the students, e.g. transportation, photocopying, presentation materials, etc. Balance will go toward the School of Business Student Needy Fund.

This is administered by the Centre for Enterprise and Executive Development and Research (CEEDAR) at the School of Business, Singapore Polytechnic, which has successfully coordinated more than 200 projects across industries for well over 100 companies in the areas of market research and preparing business plans. Company sponsors last year include Best Denki, Cheers, Polar Cafe, etc.