Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, many professions in Singapore, including financial practitioners, have been moving their businesses online, which saw an increased need for individuals to be familiar with Zoom, a teleconferencing app, to continue their day-to-day operations.
Realising this, a group of SUSS students volunteered their time as Zoom mentors to conduct free 1-on-1 hands-on training sessions for financial practitioners from 22 April 2020 onwards. The participants, who are members of the Insurance and Financial Practitioners Association of Singapore (IFPAS), represent various insurance companies and financial adviser firms in Singapore. The aim is to eventually educate about 1,000 financial practitioners.
One of the student volunteers, Mr Lau Junsong Roy, a Year 2 Bachelor of Science in Marketing with Minor student, shared: "Because of the COVID-19 situation, using Zoom has become a daily affair for SUSS classes. We even connect with friends and family with it. It is easy to use and can be quite fun too. So, when we heard that businesses may need some help to learn Zoom, we volunteered immediately. This is our way of giving back to the society during this tough period."
To enable these participants to pick up the skills fast and apply them safely, and in line with SUSS's 'learn today, apply tomorrow' teaching methodology, the participants gave product presentations to the student mentors, mimicking a real-life business meeting during these 1-on-1 training sessions.
SUSS and IFPAS aim to use the same approach to develop the capabilities of more trainers so that they can share their knowledge with more financial practitioners.