[OFFLINE] Real World Learning with Explorium
Summer 2020
OWN Academy’s Real World Learning is a career taster program designed to bridge classrooms to industries and for students to have a crash course in the professional fields. Each industry experience is designed and taught by a talented and passionate professional. Transfer their knowledge, share their crafts, and work with students on an authentic project to experience what it is like to work in the field.
Our programs focus on the disciplines of Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Environmental embedding the 21st-century skills of Imagination, Collaboration and Teamwork, Critical thinking, and Problem-solving.

SUMMER 2020
This summer, OWN Academy is collaborating with Explorium, the collaboration hub of Fung Group, on Real World Learning. Students will experience becoming a business consultant, learning the techniques, strategies, skills, and framework used by professionals.
The client students will be consulting for are two businesses owned by Fung Group – Circle K and Toys R Us. At the start of the program, a brief will be given about the objective of the consultation, students will then be taught the design thinking framework, work in teams, do field research, prototype, test and formulate their ideas.
Throughout these two weeks, students will receive mentorship and coaching by business professionals and field trips are to be expected. At the end of the two weeks, the teams will pitch their best solutions back to the businesses for businesses to consider the implementation of students’ solutions.
We are looking for students who are independent, creative thinkers, bold, and ready to be challenged. This is unlike a regular summer school, it is similar to a work experience training and will require students to be self-directed and behave like a professional.
Students who complete this program will gain business acumen, learn how to think and work like a professional, strengthen critical thinking, deepen communication skills, and exercise non-academic creativity.
Program Duration: July 6 to July 17, 2020 (Monday to Friday)
Time: 10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Ages: 12 – 19 years old
Location: Explorium, 1/F Li Fung Tower
868 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Sign Ups: Maximum of 25 students.
What To Bring: Laptops, octopus cards, a sustainable water bottle.
Program Fee: $8,750 HKD / Student
Pair Sign Up discount: Sign up in pairs and get $200 HKD off per student
DELIVERY METHOD
The course is built to be offline with use of digital assets, laptop etc. Incase of online, virtual conferencing tool and digital facilitation tools will implemented as mentioned below.
- Virtual conferencing tool, Zoom will be used to conduct the session. This allows for seamless conversations, team activities and client liaison.
- Use of Digital workspace tool, Mural. Mural is a digital workspace for collaboration and brainstorming. Students will use this tool within their teams to collect notes, research, and ideas throughout the session.
- Powerpoint templates: Most of the activities will sit on digital templates and frameworks and will be shared with students online on Zoom or Google Drive.
AGENDA
DAY 1 | Introduction: Set the foundation of the course, learn from case studies and hear from industry experts on a real-life creative problem |
|
Online/Offline |
DAY 2 & 3 | EMPATHY: Dive into using empathy to understand customers better; techniques and mindsets |
|
*In case of online session, user interviews will be conducted on Zoom, & immersion into stores can be done in student’s own neighbourhood in convenient areas. |
Day 4 | HOW MIGHT WE + IDEATION: Now that we know who our customers are, and a bit about what they like/dislike, we can start thinking a bit deeper about their needs, jobs-to-be-done, and other places that might fulfill these needs. |
|
Online/Offline |
Day 5 | DEFINITION Group ideas and start prioritising them into those that would provide real impact for the user. Understand the difference between viable, feasible, desirable ideas in business. |
|
Online/Offline |
DAY 6 & 7 | PROTOTYPE Learn the concept of rapid prototyping, iteration and testing of experiences, product or services in a real-life setting. Maximise feedback and learning. |
|
*If online, students will be asked to work remotely in their teams to finish creating prototypes. Testing of the prototypes can be done online on Zoom. |
DAY 8 | BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS |
|
Offline/Online |
Day 9 | STORYTELLING / PITCHING Learn to create a compelling pitch-deck of your solution and the art of storytelling your ideas to clients.Content 7 |
|
Offline/Online |
DAY 10 | FINAL PITCH PRESENTATIONS |
|
Offline/Online |
MEET YOUR FACILITATORS
Content Delivery: Mikkel Hansen, Explorium Hong Kong
Mikkel Hansen connects creative and commercial methodologies as an innovation consultant specialized in transformation — mostly within lifestyle categories.
He currently leads program innovation at Explorium HK, the ‘collaboration hub’ of the Fung Group conglomerate. At Explorium, a global network of tech startups, VCs, corporates, and a network of innovators are brought together, in order to build programs that create new opportunities in retail, logistics, and other areas of the fashion value chain.
Mikkel has previously worked with customer and employee experience implementation, brand strategy, and business design for numerous major lifestyle brands, startups, and social enterprises in New York, London, Paris, Singapore, and, now, Hong Kong.
Education: MBA (luxury brand management) from HEC Paris; MA (innovation) from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London; BA (media-sociology) Hunter College, New York City.
Facilitator: Sunhera Cariappa, Founder & Design Consultant, Feel Good Design
Sunhera has over 9+ years of experience in using design as a strategic and visual tool to impact products, services and environments on a humanized level.
She is passionate about understanding problems through careful observation and rapidly prototyping ideas to solve relevant needs. Her strengths lie in synthesizing research and uncovering unique insights and directions to inform and inspire design solutions.
Most recently, she has been designing platforms and programs to enable a culture of innovation at the Fung Group with the objectives of implementing a design-thinking approach to product development, new business models, collaborations and culture change. She has facilitated over 50 Design Thinking & Innovation workshops across Global Fung offices in India, Bangladesh, New York, Hong Kong and China.
Sunhera also holds a Master’s degree in Design Practices with specialisation in Design Research and Service Design from the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
**First 8 people who sign up get 5% off ($8,312.5 HKD ) (pair discount does not apply for the first 8)
Note: Students who win the online competition, Real World Challenge, will receive a complimentary spot for this program.