While pumping gas, the Esso Challenge team wears neck displays promoting environmental issues to motorists.

On a rainy Wednesday morning, Piyanon Mumanachit is assuming the role of pump boy, a role he never imagined he would ever have to take on. And it’s not an easy one, either. Besides juggling gas pumps, checking tyre pressures, cleaning windshields, and directing traffic coming in and out of the gas station, he has a goal to meet. This is because Piyanon and his five other friends are not only serving customers but competing against three other teams in order to achieve the highest sales target for the week.

Piyanon is no ordinary pump boy, however. A student from Thammasat University, he is one of the 24 short-listed candidates to undergo a four-week job training programme called the Esso Challenge 2005.

The challenge is aimed at third-year university students in Thailand in which short-listed students learn to develop their interpersonal, creative, professional, and competitive skills through hands-on activities — like the one that put Piyanon in a pump attendant’s shoes — at various Esso establishments and those of its business alliances.

Veerasak Kositpaisal, director and public affairs manager of Esso (Thailand), says that the programme specifically selects third-year university students because they are at the most appropriate stage for completing internships. According to Veerasak, second-year students may not yet have a clear picture of what they really want to do in life, while fourth-year students are busy job hunting and may not have enough time to contribute fully to the programme.

Besides obtaining work experience in a multinational company, these 24 students are also competing for the 100,000-baht scholarship. Throughout the four-week programme, the students’ skills are evaluated based on two major criteria: a weekly evaluation and an individual project that is presented at the end of the four-week training period. Evaluation points are earned in areas such as leadership, creativity, teamwork, maturity, English language skills, self-confidence, and presentation technique.

“We don’t want to place too much emphasis on the monetary prize,” says Veerasak. “We do, however, want these 24 finalists to have a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in operating a multinational company of this scale, not necessarily at Esso.”

TAKING THE CHALLENGE

The challenge begins with the application process. Before the audition day, in which Esso announces the final list of 24 candidates, students are required to write a series of short essays in English, answering questions on topics ranging from personal and academic background to open-ended questions like the nature of their dream job and how they might manage a business.

“Without self-determination, they wouldn’t be here today,” says Esso’s communication coordinator Chotirose Pongjaroen. “These students are constantly tested, from speaking publicly in English on the stage during the audition day to giving presentations on their group projects. Once in the programme, the challenge continues in a series of group and individual presentations. These students have to compete among themselves all the time.”

As part of the expeience, one team member is assigned to watch over the mini-mart.

On their first day at the pump station, the students arrive early in the morning to learn all aspects of being a pump attendant. Here, students have to utilise their skills in marketing, management, teamwork, leadership, and labour, in order to score as many points as possible for their team’s performance. Students are divided into four teams of six members, each of which have been dispatched to Esso gas stations located along Petchaburi Road, Sri Nakarin Road, and Klong Prapa Road.

“If these students want to become good management executives in the future, they have to understand those who work for them,” Veerasak says, referring to the lesson behind the two-day activities at the gas station. He explains that working under certain conditions or situations, students will encounter hardships and problems that require teamwork management.

“They will discover that during rush hours, team members will have to come together and help each other out. When there’s free time, they will have to designate certain members to work on minor jobs like cleaning the restrooms,” he adds.

In order to outperform the three other teams, Piyanon, as the team leader, divides up the tasks into front and back office. While four members attend the pumps, one member watches over the minimart, and the last member manages the promotion booth, where selected mini mart products are on sale. Besides attending these tasks, the team set a sales target of 40 cans of fuel additive liquid per day.

Piyanon, in his pump attendant uniform, checks the tyre pressure for the station's customers.

“The station’s manager advises that we should sell these fuel additives in the morning because there are more cars in the station during the morning rush hour. However, we find that this time period is also when people are most in a hurry, so they completely ignore our attempts to sell additional items. We’ll have to change our strategy,” Piyanon explains.

According to Piyanon, there is more to being a pump attendant than meeting the sales target or servicing customers. “I’ve learned that providing services while following all the operational procedures is very difficult. In this working environment, the most important thing is teamwork. If each of us does things our own way, we will never succeed,” he says.

A LEARNING THEME

At the end of each week, students have to brief the management on what they have learned from the week’s activities. Week one’s theme is creative thinking and problem solving, through participating in lubricant workshops and field trips. These field trips and workshops allow students to learn from real experts in the field and ask questions that will help them form a case study to be presented at the end of the week.

For example, one of the case studies requires students to find the relationship between the growth of car sales and the sales of lubricant oil. If this relationship is positive, they have to recommend how best to distinguish the company’s lubricant products from the rest in the market and how to bump up sales through increasing the company’s market share.

Week two’s theme is leadership and teamwork, in which students are dispatched to various service stations and perform their duties as pump attendants. The third week focuses on research and development through a visit to Esso’s oil refinery and nearby community in Si Racha district, Chonburi province. Here, besides the production aspect of the oil business, students also learn about nature conservation through a visit to nearby Khao Kheow Open Zoo, where Esso are involved in various environmental conservation programmes.

“We would like these students to understand that in operating a business, monetary profit is not the most important thing. We must also take care of the community and the environment in which we build our business,” says Veerasak. “In the future, should these students start up a company, they will not only look after their own business interests, but also the local communities that share the same environment with them.”

The fourth week’s theme is life management and social responsibility, in which students learn to balance their working life with their personal life. Students also learn about job interviews and career building. The fifth and final week are devoted to individual presentations and the award ceremony, where the winner of the 100,000 baht scholarship is announced.

What makes the Esso Challenge different from regular internship programmes is its variety and access to real experts in the field. “In regular internships, we only get to sit in one department. And most of the time, we are given petty tasks like data-entry to do all day and every day from 8am to 5pm,” said Tipaluck Krityakierne, a student at Chulalongkorn University.

Most students find that the Esso Challenge has taught them valuable lessons that they would not learn from a normal internship. Besides teaching how a business operates, the challenge also includes lessons in broader disciplines like management, leadership, creative thinking, and, most importantly, social responsibility.

For Tipaluck and her friends, this four-week experience is worth more than the prize money. It is something that they will remember for several years to come. And one day, when they have executive careers of their own, they should hopefully be able to put some of their newly acquired knowledge into practice.
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If you have any questions or comments about this story, email me at oratipn@bangkokpost.co.th.

Through Thaienvi.net, Thai students can learn about environmental issues that affect them.— BANPU

Energy giant Banpu Co Ltd has announced the launch of Thaienvi.Net (www.thaienvi.net), a website specifically designed as an online environmental learning centre for teachers and students.

Available since April, the Thai-language site, developed with input from the Thailand Environmental Institute (TEI), is intended to be a key resource for environmental educators in Thailand. Its main content covers the basics of environmental science, local and international environmental project information, and learning activities.

“One of the website’s highlights is the Natural Classroom area, which gives an extensive overview of good-to-learn environmental locations nationwide for teachers and students to visit,” said Udomlux Olarn, vice president of corporate communications with Banpu.

“Moreover, teachers and students are encouraged to recommend natural classrooms to the website as well,” she added.

Banpu, which sponsors the TEI, is supporting the site in recognition of the fact that basic environmental knowledge gives youth a better understanding of environmental problems and sustainable development. Through the Internet, says the company, these messages will reach educational target groups as well as the general public.

According to the TEI, the site fills a much-needed information gap. “At present, Thailand is lacking an integrated, ready-to-use environmental learning source specifically to support teachers and students,” said Metha Wongjarupan, project director representing the TEI, which has an advisory role on content for the site.

While the site currently does not have a specific area for teachers, it does cover activities specifically for use in the classroom. It also has a webboard for teachers and students to pose questions directly to environmental experts from the TEI as well as from the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology and the faculty of environment and resource studies at Mahidol University.

On a broader scale, the site is intended to fall in line with the government’s policy of connecting schools to online content and moving Thailand towards becoming a knowledge-based society.