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Business collaboration: Contact a company

Brief description

This exercise is meant to create inspiration for the students as to making contact to a company in connection with project work, a student job or a future job. The students prepare written material for either telephone or email contact to a potential collaboration partner.

Motivation for the exercise and required outcome

The exercise should teach the students to explain briefly and precisely what they have to offer, who they are and what they want. They obtain concrete experience of planning and preparing the telephone or email contact, which will also be helpful in a future job application situation.

Performing the exercise

  • You as a teacher must divide the students into pairs and ask them to start by preparing a draft email to a company of their own choice (See handout 1).
  • The students should spend approx. 20 minutes on preparing the draft. They must start by focusing on the items in Handout 1 that are not company specific.
    • If there is more time, the students may discuss and exchange ideas with each other regarding more company-specific items. They may find inspiration for this in the company’s website or their LinkedIn profile.
  • When time is up, each student has a draft for an email to a company which they can continue working on. At the end of the exercise, the student tells their partner in brief what will be their next step in the process – i.e. how they will move on from here. They take turns to speak for about five minutes.
  • You as a teacher sum up the exercise and ask the students what they take home from the exercise and what their next step in the process will be (three minutes).

Options:

  • You as a teacher can choose one company which the students must incorporate from the beginning. This may help the students to incorporate the exercise in a personal competence framework and open up for individually selected companies.

Activities

    Examples of practice


      You will need:

      • Download the attached handout here: