Sesame days – first presentations

As every year, the SESAME project kicked off at TBS Education – Barcelona with the participation of various companies presenting real problems for our students, intending to find solutions.

For two weeks, this year’s partner companies, Noe Builders and Amaris, collaborated with our master’s students, helping them with market diagnoses, inventory assessments of their structures, and several other recommendations. Not only students and businesses worked together, but teachers also coached the students throughout the process.

what is the SESAME project?

Each year, 25 different SESAME missions are carried out, and distributed across the four TBS Education campuses. This is an activity focused on autonomy, involving 36 students divided into 4 teams, adding valuable skills to their resumes and providing them with a great learning experience. They worked with real data presented through PowerPoint presentations, Excel files with databases, polls, mapping, and other resources. Although the project itself has a duration of two weeks, all the missions were defined 3 to 5 months in advance.

FIRST presentation session

On 14 January, after a week of work, the students started to make their presentations about a market diagnostic from the companies they are working for. Checking the opportunities, the market demands, targets, and threats. In a 20-minute presentation and 10 minutes of Q&A round for each group, all of them make a different analysis of each company with different results:

Amaris case

They examined the market and established that the best way to grow is with the integration of IA tools and digital transformation in general. To reach this conclusion they make a study of the global and Spanish market.  But first of all, they learned about the company by talking with different employees and managers.

Being an expert in the business of study was the key, something that the next group focused.

Neo Builders case

They examined the competencies and perspectives to understand their appointed business better, even better than the company itself. This highlights two important points: first, confirming the business vision by affirming the effectiveness of their sustainable goals and second; theorizing about the path they must follow.

In fact, the company was pleasantly surprised by the results and didn’t hesitate to thank the students for identifying aspects they had overlooked. This highlights the importance of the practice for both companies and students.

A steep learning curve in a short time

The students started with no knowledge and ended up mastering their arguments. Their adaptability and flexibility helped them achieve their goals. The tutors from the Neo Builders team, Xavier Gasso, and Julia Farré, were delighted with their student’s progress and also admired the company’s open-mindedness for listening attentively and acknowledging their weaknesses. They also mentioned the valuable support from the school, particularly the school library, which provided the students with the necessary references and books to acquire this knowledge.

And what’s next?

Next Wednesday, January 22nd, the project will conclude with a final presentation, following more hours of study, reflection, and analysis. The students already have the basis for leading the team. Leadership is one of the aspects that we haven’t mentioned until now but our students learned too; an essential quality that the students have put into practice, along with teamwork. These skills will undoubtedly continue to evolve. While the next learning curve may not be the same, they have learned a lot of things, explored new skills, and, of course, demonstrated the value of this hands-on experience.