The Société Générale Foundation supports Passerelles numériques’ Vietnam projects and students all year long. This partnership, agreed in 2014, has just been renewed in April of 2015.
Simultaneously, a beautiful relationship also emerged between Passerelles numériques and Société Générale Singapore. They wish to transfer their know-how to PN Vietnam, which led to the first volunteering mission of a team of their staff members in May of this year. It consisted in giving a very thorough 3-day presentation of the banking world to second-year students, during which they learned about budget management, loans, financial interlocutors in business, etc.
This training is particularly relevant to PNV’s educational goal, which is to educate the “citizens of tomorrow” by giving them a sense of responsibility and the right keys to professional and personal success.
Lise Simonneau, Education Manager at PN Vietnam, said:
“These driven volunteers did a great job adapting the training to the local context and to our students’ actual needs. The students loved that the training was so interactive and showed it by asking many questions. The education team also benefited from this training, since they learned a lot about banking and money saving from the volunteers; they also appreciated discussing pedagogy together.
The volunteers did not come alone as Mr. Pascal Lambert, President of Société Générale Singapore, and Ms. Dung, a representative of Société Générale Vietnam, were also able to come and chat with our students. On the first evening, the volunteers went to one of the girls’ residence for a traditional Vietnamese dinner, which was a great occasion for them to acknowledge what the students’ living conditions are like, but also to speak with them and learn more about their sometimes harsh personal history, how they see their personal and professional lives, and their shared dream of building a better future.
Alvin Tran, Volunteering trainer for this mission, said:
It was refreshing to see the energy and passion shown by the students during our teach-in. They were intelligent, keen to learn and asked pertinent questions, which demonstrated their understanding. We also had the opportunity to visit their living quarters during one of the evenings, where we witnessed the camaraderie and strong solidarity among them. It was indeed heartwarming to see the accomplishments of all the hard work done at PN!
This first training was a great success on all levels, we hope a second one can be planned for fall.
The entire PN team warmly thanks the volunteers engaged in this mission, and is grateful for the precious support given by the Société Générale Foundation and by Société Générale Singapore.