Plaza Premium Group CSR Education Programme in collaboration with The New York Times
Plaza Premium Group
“This year-long education programme with NYT seeks to contribute back to the countries where we have operations in hopes of making a positive difference. The award is a great accomplishment on our CSR endeavours and we are honoured to be recognized for having one of the best CSR practices across Asia.”
INTRODUCTION
Plaza Premium Group (The Group) attaches great importance to education and grooming leaders of our next generation. Their CSR Education Programme was established and carried out in collaboration with The New York Times (NYT) in 2016. The Group believes that giving back to the society is one of the fundamentals that create a positive impact on the people who can collectively contribute to the betterment of their community. Passing down knowledge to younger generation is a time-honoured practice with lasting impact and providing world-class English learning materials with case studies in particular can attain such goal. The aim of this programme is to enhance the analytical skills of students receiving tertiary education in developing countries, promote their habit of reading, work towards improving their English level, foster innovative ideas through learning, and improve our future leaders’ understanding of global issues.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
To kick start this CSR initiative, the project is implemented across ten universities in India, Thailand and Cambodia for one year. The Group collaborated with NYT by co-developing the scope of the former’s CSR Education Programme, designing workshops, enabling access to relevant online resources and English materials including articles, news, experimental educational features, debates, conversation with leadership and management, case studies, financial deal book and 18 channels of video reporting. Student ambassadors at each participating university were engaged to provide rounds of trainings and briefings to students on the programme objectives and its functional tools. Led by Corporate Communications Department of the Group, communications, education, learning and development, as well as design resources of the Group and NYT in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and India were drawn to develop various online and offline information packs as well as messaging instruments to create awareness and encourage participation.ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
A considerable amount of students in the participating institutions have enrolled to the programme. There are about 25,000 sessions of visits1 across the participating institutions within the first eight months. For one institution in Thailand alone, close to 20,000 cumulative daily page-view2 of the online education material were established in the first six months. While this CSR initiative is still ongoing, these figures have already demonstrated a positive impact on students’ habit of reading and usage of learning materials such as experimental educational features, case studies and articles online to improve their international perspectives. Three on-campus workshops on innovation and entrepreneurship are being lined up to widen their perspectives and video is scheduled to be produced to share with students who are unable to attend.FUTURE DIRECTION
One of the key considerations in the development of this initiative is sustainability. As knowledge can change a person’s destiny, Plaza Premium Group is determined that this CSR Education Programme comprising training, learning and workshop shall enable and cultivate analytical skills, the habit of proactively learning, searching for knowledge, and being innovative. The Group will be taking into account the feedback from students as well as their teachers for optimization of their upcoming CSR initiative with a view to benefiting younger generation in the wider context with a long-lasting effect.
Plaza Premium Group, a global service brand headquartered in Hong Kong, is the industry leader in Premium Airport Services. The Group comprises four core airport hospitality businesses, namely Airport Lounge, Airport Transit Hotel, Airport Meet & Greet, and Airport Dining.
