今年度の日本語弁論大会で、優秀な成績を収めたAnanyaさんが、トヨタ自動車オーストラリア社でのインターンシップレポートを送ってくださいました。
I took part in the Japanese Language Speech Contest in 2017, which provided me the opportunity to apply for internships through JCCIM. I was delighted to receive an incredible opportunity to work at Toyota Motor Corporation Australia in Melbourne for a duration of 4 weeks starting from the 15th of January 2018.
Having studied Japanese at school and at university, alongside a commerce degree, piqued my interests in Japanese business practices such as kaizen, Kanban, nemawashi, keiretsu, etc. Working at Toyota enabled me to see these practices in play. I worked in the human resources department as a people strategy coordinator. Management is one of my majors at Melbourne University so it was great to work in an area that I have studied extensively. However, I found that even though classroom learning was quite different to the functioning of a real world organisation, there were many similarities between what I had learnt and how the organisation operated. An example of this is Toyota’s shift from a manufacturer to a distributor, a major change requiring a change champion to facilitate smooth transition and operation in the organisation.
My first 2 weeks at Toyota, I worked with a people strategy team, which was responsible for employee development. After that, I worked with the human resource business partner division, which was associated with employees in different departments of the organisation such as marketing, legal, etc. Finally, in my last week I worked with the health, wellbeing, and safety team whose main function was to ensure that safety standards are met for a safe workplace. This sort of job rotation exposed me to a variety of different roles in the organisation. I was fortunate enough to work for an organisation with incredibly kind, knowledgeable, and welcoming people.
This experience has contributed immensely towards both my personal and professional development. The skills and knowledge I acquired will bear fruit throughout my professional career. Working for a company like Toyota was an invaluable and unmatchable experience. I sincerely thank JCCIM and Toyota for the opportunity.
Petting dogs at Toyota’s new headquarter opening celebration