CEO Forum

(19^th November 2012)
On 19th November 2012, our CEO forum was held at 7 pm in Spring Singapore Auditorium.


The event received overwhelming response where more than 600 people attended the seminar. Many of them are working professionals and students yet with great interest they came early to get a closer spot to the speaker.

Mr Andy Ong, CEO of ERC Holdings, as usual gave an inspirational and insightful speech to the audience highlighting the recent happenings in today’s property market, how we can cope with the rapid changes and what is the valuable knowledge derived from the market situations.

With his up-to-date market analysis and insights, Mr Andy Ong candidly shared with the audience on his views and strategies for the upcoming year ahead. At the end of his sharing, the audience was given the opportunity to have a Q & A session with Mr Andy Ong. It was such an interactive exchange of questions and views among the audience and Mr Andy Ong, that the Q & A session almost overran the programme.

Mr. Andy Ong's powerful speech and informative Q & A session were the highlights of the event especially when he shared his personal experiences in his recent globetrotting trips in various countries and his personal observations and analysis.

The audience is looking forward to the next CEO Forum in Mar 2013 at Marina Bay Sands where a few other CEOs & successful leaders will also be speaking alongside with Mr Andy Ong, for yet another insightful and interactive session of information and insights.

Indian Student Society Deepavali Event

The ISS (Indian Student Society) team members welcomed the guests in a unique way by making them light up the candles as Deepavali is a festival of lights.

The team of ISS from ERC Institute has recently organized their way of celebrating ‘Deepavali’ also known as ‘Diwali’ (The Festival of Lights) on 17^th November 2012 successfully. There was an overwhelming crowd that attended the function which was held at our Institute. Despite the heavy downpour, the function commenced on time by traditional lighting-up by our CEO and the Executive Committee.

INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE:

Bharathanatyam is the traditional dance for the Indian community. The function commenced with Indian Classical Dance by Ms. S. Subhashini, currently a psychology lecturer with her graceful dance, showing different manifestations of Lord Shiva in her expressions. Her seven-minute performance was spectacular bringing a loud of applause. She also showed up her dancing skills not only in classical dance but also in western and traditional dances too.

MIME:

The highlight of the show was this MIME. It is acting a story through body emotions without any dialogue. Our team of 12 members sent a message to the audience by reiterating using mobile phones wisely. Even though the message was paramount, our boys delivered it in a hilarious way which was enjoyed by everyone.

DRAMA:

The mythical story of Deepavali was re-enacted by our students that depicted the rise of Deepavali. The costumes and accessories of the casts were unique and some of the drama team members were able to unveil their hidden talents by their emotional outpour during the drama.

There was also unconditional support from other private education institutes (PEIs) in their outstanding performance of dance, songs and music.

INTERNATIONAL FUSION DANCE:

One of the main highlights of program was the international fusion dance. The Chinese girls danced in traditional Indian sarees while the Indian boys danced for the Chinese traditional dance. There was an overwhelming support from the audience.

As the ISS has concentrated on not only the Indian students but also opened for all other nationalities to bring out their hidden talents. They also had external participants from other PEI’s such as JCU, NUS, PSB, AEC and MDIS students as performers in our SPARK FEST. We also had special guests and school representatives from Malaysia.

The ISS committee was pleased by the number of people who attended the function which surpassed 110.

The Spark Fest of ERCI Indian Student Society(ISS) was indeed a huge success.

Gobbler Shop in ERC Institute

(30th October 2012)
On 30th October 2012, Gobbler shop visited ERC Institute for the first time to give monster savings to all ERCI staff and students. Hugely discounted items such as toiletries, cosmetics, snacks etc were among the cheap merchandises offered. Most of the items are discounted on a range of 50% to 70% as compared to the usual retail price. Indeed, this is a huge monster savings for all!


Student Council of ERCI volunteered at this bazaar co-organized together with Moove Media. The student leaders helped in handling the goods, merchandise display as well as selling all the goodies. Helping out at such a platform enables the Student Council leaders to have a first-hand exposure in understanding retail operations which encompass logistics arrangements, merchandise display, pricing and of course the techniques of selling to different types of consumers.

All our ERCI staff and students enjoyed the Globber Shop with products at huge monster savings and the convenience that they can do their shopping within the campus. This is definitely a successful collaboration effort with Moove Media. And we are already looking forward to the next Globber Shop!

PHF Slipper Race – Let’s Walk The Distance

(4th Nov 2012)
This is the second year that we join the Project Happy Feet Slipper Race and it’s more special than previous year. This year, we garnered more lecturers to join us and our beloved CEO as well. Walking 4 kilometers is our new challenge for this year but the enthusiasm of the ERCI team has never faltered because to be able to do our part for charity is our privilege.


With a strength of 35 staff and students, the ERCI entourage was one of the loudest group cheering away on the Sunday morning at East Coast Park. The ERCI team was in either the ERCI corporate polo tee or Student Council t-shirt. This is our way of showing the unity behind the ERCI team spirit.

By attending this event, we played our roles to bring a smile to every kid who will benefit from this event. Besides that, we hope that these underprivileged children from Cambodia and Vietnam will have a better life and a brighter future.

Make A Difference To Your CV

(25th Oct 2012)
A curriculum vitae (CV) or resume provides a summary or listing of your relevant job experience and education. Sound quite simple but how to impress the potential employers by a catching CV?


Ms Jenne Foo, Marketing and Service Director of ERCI will show you how. With 5 years of banking experience in both the off-shore and local banks, dealing with Monetary Authority of Singapore reporting as well as personal financial consultancy with customers. She also has 10 years experience in the education industry spanning across various scope ranging from lecturing, Head of Departments, Student Services as well as service training. Therefore, she is fully qualified to guide us how to improve our CV.

During the workshop, she emphasised the SWOT analysis because she believed that if you know your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) well, you will be able to differentiate yourself from the competition. Besides that, she illustrated the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” when creating a resume. This workshop is very helpful for students, especially for graduating students who are seeking for jobs. By creating an impressive CV mark the very foundation of getting yourself noticed by potential employers.

Amazing Race Student Orientation

20^th October 2012 (Saturday)

Before we focus on the highlights of our Amazing Race, let us show our heartfelt Thanks to Moove Media for sponsoring 300 badges for our Amazing Race. And our beloved Student Council, for their commitment in making this event a success. You guys rock!

Early Saturday morning, our Student Council members gathered at ERCI River Valley ready to kickstart the much-awaited Student Orientation Amazing Race in Orchard Road. At 8:30am, participating students arrived at ERCI RV. Our Student Council members took care of the registration at the reception of ERCI RV. They’ve given out Moove Media Badges for all participating students by dividing them into different groups. In the Amazing Race, there are six stations along Orchard Road where our students are given hints to find the stations. They have to accomplish one challenge at each station. The challenges ranged from games like transformers, passing marbles, to dancing Gangnam Style with passer-bys on the street. Cool, isn’t it? The team that finishes all the challenges at six stations within the shortest time wins the race.

Our first prize winner was Team Naughty They beat the rest of the competing teams with their great teamwork and fast responses. After a morning of walking and running, all the student participants and Student Council are tired. Yet, you can still see the happy and satisfies look on our students’ faces.

With this Amazing Race, students get to interact and bond with one another. They learn about the importance of teamwork and how it helps in achieving a common goal despite of the different background where they originate from. This platform also serves as a catalyst for the students in igniting new friendships among them at ERC Institute.

Executive Networking Seminar

(13th September 2012)

"Your success in life isn't based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers and business." This is a memorable as well as practical quotation created by Mark Sanborn.

On 13th September 2012, the theories of Change Management were brought to life by Dr Tay Chor Ter. Dr Tay is our Adjunct Lecturer and Member of Academic Board from ERC Institute. Most of our attendees are working professionals, current MBA students and even entrepreneurs from the real business world.

Dr Tay shared insights about the interesting topicof how to “Ride the Waves of Change” and be successful in the business world. He triggered the enthusiasm of the audience by creating an interactive and friendly environment. The last session was the sharing session of our very own University of Wolverhampton’s MBA students and working professionals - Mr Terrence Ong and Mr Ken Leong. They shared about their own practical experiences in the corporate and business world.

At the end of the seminar, everyone mingled and networked with one another over the buffet dinner and exchanged name cards and contacts.

Beyond gaining knowledge from the seminar, most of them have a chance to meet professionals from different fields of business and expand their network. Without any doubt, it was a good and beneficial platform for all attendees to broaden their professional network and insights.

World Tamil Youth Conference 2012

(20 – 22 July 2012)

The World Tamil Youth Conference 2012 was an initiative endeavoured by National University of Singapore’s Tamil Language Society (NUS TLS) 33^RD Executive Committee. Conventionally the discussion group is held every 2 years by NUS TLS. The uniqueness of this conference was meant to understand the degree of proficiency of the Tamil language especially amongst the youths and find new avenues to improve them.

There were wide array of issues discussed during the seminar. The papers were presented by academics, counselors, students and scholars from Canada, United States of America, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and other countries around the world. The subjects discussed ranged from classical Tamil literature to development of Tamil cinema today.

The 3-day event was commenced by an opening ceremony held at the Guild House. There were festival events and one of the celebrities was the veteran speaker of Sun TV, Mr. Gopinath. There were also local Vasantham Central stars who appeared at this event.

In the 3-day forum, participants have learned more about the Tamil identity and how to inculcate its values and the language especially amongst the youths. Representatives of tertiary institutions and schools, lecturers, family members, counselors were strongly engaged in the open discussion. This has alleviated some of the problems and found new ways on how to further enhance the beauty of the Tamil language.

As students and academics of ERC Institute, we actively participated in the open discussion and took this opportunity to interact with professionals, academics, fellow students and the general public. With such an intellectual stimulating and engaging platform, we are definitely looking forward to participate actively in similar conferences in future.

 

FURAMA RIVERFRONT HOTEL INDUSTRY VISIT

(18 SEPTEMBER 2012)

Furama International is an award-winning chain of mid-range hotels situated in the vibrant Asia Pacific region, Furama hotels offer leisure and business travellers alike a well-appointed backdrop to indulge in restful play and invigorating work.

Furama Hotels International Management (FHI), a Singapore-based hotel management company, is committed to offering excellent accommodation choices in key global cities backed by the drive to promote memorable guest experiences. Currently, her presence in 6 key cities avails more than 7,500 rooms, with numbers growing as the company expands globally.

On September 18, 2012, our students from the Advanced Diploma in Business Administration (Tourism & Hospitality Management) had the opportunity to visit Furama RiverFront Hotel, which is situated at Havelock Road. It is one of the locally-owned hotels, situated near the Singapore River; offering guests with a wide range of amenities and well-equipped guest rooms. Mr. Gwee EAM of Furama RiverFront Hotel conducted a 15-minute brief history and introduction of Furama Hotels. Students also had the opportunity to view different guest rooms, back-of-the house such as the kitchens, banquet preparation room, etc.

After the visit, our students not only gain new insights into hotel operations, some of them have even expressed their interest to join the company after graduation.

Participants:

25 students + 2 lecturers

Briefing by Mr. Gwee

Tour of the guest room

Tour of the amenities

   Tour of back-of-the-house: Kitchen



A day we will not forget

(18th August 2012)

Were you there with us on that day? That was a sunny Saturday at Universal Studios Singapore (USS). Though we woke up very early on Saturday morning but all of us did not feel sleepy at all. As we are very excited and looking forward to this event as most of us have not been to USS before. Thus, this was a great chance for us to bond together and have fun for the whole day.

We had so much fun whereby we enjoyed most of the rides. Besides that, the event became fun-filled because of the cartoon characters’ involvement. This reminded us about the wonderful childhood that all of us had. Moreover, this trip has really bonded both the staff and students. Despite the different nationalities and races where we originate from, but through such an event, we have bonded as one family.