Te Puke High School student on Young Enterprise BizVenture

Te Puke High School student Ben Van De Weerd (back row, centre) attended the Young Enterprise BizVenture event.

Te Puke High School student Ben Van De Weerd has experienced first-hand how across-borders businesses operate.

Ben was one of 18 students nationally selected for the Young Enterprise BizVenture initiative.

The two-country business challenge paired the New Zealand students with peers in Japan.

During the week, Ben visited companies such as Deloitte, BTM and Buckley Systems.

“These trips along with others brought us into the world of large business, learning about Japanese business tradition like how to properly exchange business cards or how to hold meetings with who sits where,” Ben said.

“We also made trips to Japanese restaurants where they cook the food in front of you where we started the new tradition of Kids Beer [a non-alcoholic Japanese sparkling apple juice].”

Over the weekend, through a series of six- to eight-hour Zoom calls, he teamed up with two other New Zealand students and a Japanese student.

“We banded together to develop a personal betterment app, designed to encourage collaboration in the Japanese youth,” Ben said.

“Start from scratch with absolutely nothing, we quickly developed a logo, mascot , colour scheme and prototype, jam packing it all together into a Google slide presentation and presenting it via a Zoom call.

“The day ended with a final goodbye and a thanks to all the mentors and YES team members that made this trip possible.”

BizVenture is a partnership with North Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence.