GLA career special event “ANA Experience-based Program 2023” was held.

GLA held a special extra-curricular career program, “ANA Experience-based Program 2023”, for four days from 29 October to 26 November 2023. Now in its third year, the program, in collaboration with ANA Kansai Airport Co., Ltd., consists of three parts: pre-learning, on-site training experience and presentation. This year, 16 GLA students participated in the program and, as last year, the majority of participants were first and second-year students, indicating that many students are trying to think about their future careers as early as possible.

 The aim of the project was to help students learn about the wide variety of jobs and roles that support air transportation and to explore their future career options through on-site experience of airport operations, the core business of the airline industry. In addition, we tried to provide an opportunity to think about what kind of work, roles, and way of thinking would excite students in the future, while looking at how people working in the field relate to their work and what they value. As the ANA Group's management vision for 2023 has been newly formulated, the name of this program has also been changed from the new management vision, "Uniting the World in Wonder".

 During the pre-learning session on 29 October, the students learned about the “ANA’s Way”, the action guidelines, an overview of the ANA brand, airport duties and business etiquette directly from ANA staff. Although some students looked nervous at first, the friendly and attentive facilitation by the staff made it a meaningful learning experience in a relaxed atmosphere. Next, during the two-day on-site training experience on 11 and 12 November, the students were given lectures on ground handling, passenger services and operations management. They then visited each site, met the people who work there and had role-play experiences such as making announcements and boarding procedures. There was also a round-table discussion where the students could ask questions and interact directly with the employees, giving them an insight into the thinking from the employees' perspective, which they would not normally have the chance to know. On 26 November, the final day of the program, the students gave a presentation to the employees of ANA Kansai Airport Co., Ltd. based on the learning from the pre-learning and on-site training. Working in groups of four, each group presented on the “common” and “group-specific themes that had been presented beforehand. The common theme was "What initiatives can each department take to convey the excitement of ANA to our customers?", while the group-specific theme presented "What ANA should work on" regarding issues such as diversity, digital transformation and improving customer experience value. 

Regarding the on-site training experience, some of the students’ comments included, "I realized that operations management work is central to safety response and plays an essential role in ensuring the safe flight of aircraft." and "Seeing them work hard and proudly gave us a good idea of what kind of person a cool working adult is.” In addition, their comments on the presentation included, "I realized that the presentation would not be successful unless everyone had a clear understanding of the theme and each other's opinions during the group work.", and "It was great that we were able to confirm ANA's philosophy and action guidelines with the group members and unify the direction of the presentation, so that we could think about the content and specific proposals more closely linked to ANA's philosophy and action guidelines."　After the presentations, Mr. Tomomi Nakaya, Senior Manager of the Personnel Section, said, “I am glad that the students were able to feel the mindset that each and every ANA employee values, and I hope that they will confidently apply what they have learned at university and what they have researched about ANA as a company in society. I hope their four days here will be useful.” 

GLA will continue to provide and support opportunities such as this program to help students cultivate diverse perspectives and viewpoints, think about their future careers from an early age and design their own careers to expand their possibilities. 

Sincerely,
The GLA Office