Cao Zhen

    Six girls of Senior 1 and 2 from OCT Middle School won the first Shenzhen Business Competition on Saturday.

    The competition, launched in September by Shenzhen College of International Education (SCIE), was attended by more than 200 high school students from 10 local schools.

    In the preliminary round, students were asked to answer questions in English about business models and marketing. In the semifinal, contestants were asked to make an advertisement for a Casio electronic dictionary. The presentation was also in English.

    In the final which was held in Dongmen, Luohu District on Saturday, teams from Nantou, Experimental and OCT middle schools and SCIE were asked to buy required items in Dongmen from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The team who spent the least would be crowned winners.

    Each winner of the OCT team got a place on an internship program at Citi Bank, restaurant coupons and an Apple Shuffle provided by the competition sponsors.

    The event was organized by students of SCIE’s Business Practice Club and guided by teachers.

    “The students set the questions and rules but teachers acted as judges. Every Monday afternoon, teachers trained the students,” said Allen Liu, a business studies teacher at SCIE, a high school near Huanggang Park, Futian District.

    “All the sponsors were contacted by our students,” said Wang Keyu, a Senior 1 student in SCIE and a member of the Business Practice Club, which has 30 members.

    “When we first contacted sponsors in April last year, we were rejected because the sponsors thought our plan had many flaws,” said Wang.

    He said since the competition was targeted at business and English, they only invited international school students to attend. “The sponsors thought we should invite more students from other schools, so we made changes.”

    “The competition is a great opportunity for students from different schools to get together and meet different people in the society,” said Neil Mobsby, academic deputy principal of SCIE.

    “The event not only let the students gain business experience, but also helped them learn team work,” said Mobsby.