Date: March 28, 2023
Location: Tokyo　　　

Participants: 5 high school students and 2 program graduates
Program:

　　　LITs and graduate program members visited the office of Michael Page, a British -based recruitment company. There was the same number of employees as our participants joining the program, and the introduction taught us that people with various backgrounds, careers, and hobbies are working together. They also explained about the industry and how the recruitment process work, which was new information to all participants.

Each employee then shared their good and challenging experiences at work and how to keep the motivation. There were great messages, such as “be sure to take time to focus on yourself because the most important thing is yourself,” “creating a good working and living environment leads to maintaining motivation,” and “life is a marathon, so it’s important to keep working on everyday tasks.” The messages were particularly meaningful as participants are all in various stages of preparing for the next step of their life, whether looking to enter a university or employment.

　　　Before and after lunch, the participants had an opportunity to talk to the employees one on one. They discussed various topics, from issues they were facing to their hobbies. Graduate members, in particular, were asking many questions about job hunting and getting advice. There was a mixture of serious conversations and laughter throughout the room, and it continued until the very end.

　　　The participants had a few takeaways from this visit, as they commented, “there are different ways to look at the same thing, like ‘being told off’ can be seen as ‘being taught,’” “you shouldn’t give up because you can’t, rather you should challenge it because you can’t,“ and “I’ve learned many different views and interpretation from talking to many people.” These are great lessons that are directly applicable to their everyday lives. Thank you so much to everyone at Michael Page for creating such a valuable experience for the participants.