2024/04/10
In February 2024, an online job tour was held connecting ANA Blue Base, the ANA Group's comprehensive training center, with two elementary schools in Okinawa Prefecture.
Approximately 100 participants from six classes of 3rd-6th graders participated in the tour.
Through quizzes and demonstrations, the tour introduced various jobs in the ANA Group.
This online job tour was made possible through collaboration with several organizations and companies. The foundation of this project is dormant deposits.
Dormant deposits are deposits that have not been transacted for more than 10 years, and a system to utilize such money to solve social issues and promote private public interest activities began in FY2019. General Incorporated Foundation Japan Network for Public Interest Activities (JANPIA) subsidizes such dormant deposits to NPOs and other organizations, and the money is being used throughout Japan to solve social issues.
The Online Job Tour was held in collaboration with ONESPACE Inc. and Mirai Fund Okinawa, an organization that has been conducting online job tours as a project utilizing dormant deposits, with the hope that children in Okinawa Prefecture, which has fewer opportunities for career education in terms of environment and industry compared to the mainland and metropolitan areas, would learn about the various types of jobs available.
Utilizing the ANA Blue Base facility, which resembles an actual airport, we connected the elementary school with the live broadcast from a space that made them feel as if they were in the actual airport.
The content of the tour was divided into four parts: (1) about the work of the ANA Group, (2) about safety work, (3) introduction of ground staff duties, and (4) Q&A session.
In part (3), an employee from Okinawa wearing the Okinawa Airport limited edition Kariyushi uniform gave a talk so that elementary school students in Okinawa Prefecture could feel a little closer to the company.
In a survey conducted after the event, more than 90% of the elementary school students who participated answered, "The online job tour gave me a sense of the real atmosphere of the workplace," and many others said, "It was interesting to learn many things for the first time."
Even though the situation was "unavoidable," we took seriously the fact that, as the spread of COVID-19 was prolonged, things that should have been experienced during a short childhood were cancelled without the children's consent, and we wanted to provoke discussion about not giving up on the experience.
We then focused on "online contents," which can be done while avoiding direct contact between people. We held a public call for organizations to execute the "distribution and exchange platform project."
Including ANA this time, I believe that the possibilities for online job tours will continue to expand, including tours of remote workplaces that are difficult to visit due to the geographical conditions of Okinawa Prefecture, and factories that were previously inaccessible due to safety and hygiene concerns.
This project was based on the idea that "children's learning should not be stopped" as school events were canceled one after another due to the spread of COVID-19. When we heard voices at the school saying, "We can finally get back to normal," which could be taken to mean, "We are finally free from the online world," we felt a sense of crisis that learning might degenerate. With the spread of COVID-19, the school's communication environment has been improved and teachers' IT literacy has increased, and we felt that now was the time to expand the value and potential of online.
While Okinawa has the charm of an island with unique culture and history and rich nature, the "learning gap" for children due to the disadvantage of distance has become an issue.
Through the online job tours, we feel that not only will it lead to the future as a "guarantee of learning experiences for children," but it will also create various by-products for both schools and companies.
We also learned from ANA that flying an airplane is a team spirit, and we strongly felt that spirit in the operation of this Online Job Tour.
We hope that through this collaborative project, hands-on activities for children will spread throughout Japan, and that it will serve as a catalyst for the expansion of experience opportunities.
The ANA Group will continue to work together with other companies and organizations to build a sustainable community.