"Develop human resources to bear manufacturing industries with global competitive edge"

Development and production of "Only-one" products are essential to enhance global competitiveness of companies centered on manufacturing in Hokkaido and Japan. This program aims to nurture foreign students as a bearer to achieve this, through education responding the needs from industries to develop innovative ideas that Japanese people do not have, specialized abilities, ability to step in and do a good job, ability to develop products for international market and ability to respond locally.

1. Education program that is developed and provided under business-academia collaboration (1)

□Special lecture on companies and work (newly developed)

(1) knowledge on management of a company and (2) basics for business person required other than the specialized knowledge, aiming to become an engineer who is conscious of purposes and goals of a company, who can think and act by himself / herself and who can play a core role in engineering and management of a company.

2. Education program that is developed and provided under business-academia collaboration (2)

□Special lecture on technology management (newly developed)

Learn (1) intellectual properties, (2) R&D in companies, (3) resources and environment, (4) manufacturing and quality control, (5) production system, and (6) project management and understand outline of management of technology required for an engineer to play a key role as a front-line researcher or a project leader of various projects in a company.

3. Education program that is developed and provided under business-academia collaboration (3)

□Special lecture on global management (newly developed)

Understand (1) basic knowledge on global management, (2) knowledge on international law, (3) knowledge on global procurement and supply chains, and (4) cross-cultural communication (behaviors and skills to negotiate and conduct activities in diverse society) and acquire basic abilities for an engineer to play an active role on the global arena as a person who bridges Japan with overseas manufacturing bases.

4. Education program that is developed and provided under business-academia collaboration (4)

□Comprehensive practice for business (newly developed)

Comprehensive practice for company management using "Business game" software will be held in Hitachi Institute of Management Development for three days and three nights and a team of foreign students compete with a team of employees to develop abilities for financing, marketing, communication, team building and decision making.

5. Business Japanese language / Japanese business training

□Business Japanese language / Japanese business training (newly developed)

Target foreign students with various Japanese language skills and improve their skills to certain level in a short time (levels to be achieved are divided into two according to their skills and companies they hope to be employed: 1) a level to conduct local management in an overseas affiliate of a Japanese company and bridge the company with a head office in Japan; 2) a level to conduct business in an equal way with Japanese workers in a Japanese company. To achieve this, the two-day-a-week training consists of a course using materials for total of 200 hours that are customized from AOTS materials and a supplementary course for grammar, vocabularies and conversations that are not included in the first course.

Furthermore, intensive basic Japanese language program for foreign students who can not participate in the curriculum above will be held in Japanese language class of International Student Center for 6 months before participating in the program.

6. Support for study and job hunting, internship, flow of employment and companies who receive foreign students

Internship:

Based on the requests from foreign students, coordinator for internship and employment will consult with companies and determine a company for internship. Target companies mainly consist of 17 companies participating in the project, 5 companies with comprehensive partner agreement that have received students for internship before, 322 companies implementing joint research with Graduate School of Engineering and 35 technology companies registered in CEED of Hokkaido University.

Support for study and job hunting:

Career counselors of CAREER BANK Co., Ltd. which is a consigner of the university will provide detailed assistance for study and job hunting through regular interviews and mentoring, under collaboration with coordinator for internship and employment of this program, coordinator for study support and Career Center of Hokkaido University. The career counselors support study program and job hunting support program of Hokkaido University and also hold seminars on preparation for job hunting to support foreign students where they can learn flow of recruiting by Japanese companies, detailed procedures to participate in company seminars and preparations for interview tests.

Detailed flow for deciding a company to be employed:

Coordinators for internship and employment of this program and coordinators for study support (teaching staff of Hokkaido University) take initiatives to provide support for job hunting, company information and guidance for job hunting under collaboration with instructors for each foreign student and professors in charge of employment in each course which foreign students belong to.

Actively promote the participation of excellent foreign students in this program and nurture them as human resources who have acquired innovative ideas that Japanese people can't think of, advanced processing technologies, production management, quality control, techniques and know-how for the improvements in the field, etc., and who are equipped with abilities to develop products for global market and products manufactured in overseas bases and to respond locally.

1. Human resources with ideas that Japanese students don't have and highly specialized abilities exceeding the level of Japanese students. Human resources who can grasp the ultimate needs for a company to enhance its global competitiveness and who can create products with high competitive edge while utilizing their own characteristics as a foreigner in Japanese corporate culture.

2. Human resources who have adaptable fighting potential to exercise their abilities in the early stage after the employment.

3. Human resources who have abilities to respond to overseas production and overseas customers in designing and developing of the products for global market.

4. Human resources who understand products and management principles of Japanese companies for the company's overseas advance and who can bridge head office in Japan with overseas affiliated company.

Hokkaido University

National University Corporation Hokkaido University

TEL：011-706-7159

FAX：011-706-6141

E-mail：asiajinzai@eng.hokudai.ac.jp