BizConnect: Conversation Turns to Action for the Youth

My first week of my internship didn’t go the way I had imagined. Instead of quietly settling into my desk, I found myself going back to back between multiple tabs on my computer, from BizConnect ToR and agenda, to Canva templates for participant certificates and name tags, while also drafting ideas for the BizConnect video concept.

And that was my introduction to BizConnect, even though at that point, I didn’t fully understand what it was yet.

All I knew was that it was happening in Bali, bringing together participants from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam for a Training of Trainers (ToT) under the SCOPE-HE programme. Meanwhile, I was supporting everything from a distance in real time, trying to keep up through documents, updates, and shared materials.

At first, it felt a bit surreal. I’m working on something I couldn’t physically see, relying on shared documents, updates, and snippets of conversations yet I was still expected to help shape how the whole thing is communicated. But as the days went by, things slowly started to click.

Through the materials I was working on and the discussions I was following, I began to understand what BizConnect was really trying to do. At its core, BizConnect is about bridging the gap between education and industry, especially within Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). It is designed to bring schools and companies into the same space, not just to meet, but to actually build partnerships.

And the more I understood that, the more it started to feel less like a concept and more like something I had seen and experienced myself. You know that feeling when people say “fresh graduates aren’t ready for work” or when students feel like what they studied doesn’t fully match real jobs? That’s the gap they’re talking about. And apparently, it’s not just an individual problem. It’s happening across Southeast Asia, especially now when industries are changing very quickly because of digital and green transitions.

Something that stood out to me from the opening remarks by Dr Frank Feulner, Team Leader of SCOPE-HE, was when he said “This Training of Trainers is a crucial step, and it will equip you, the future facilitators, with the skills and confidence to implement BizConnect in your own countries and within your own national contexts.” It made me realise that BizConnect is meant to be more than just a one-time event. It is a starting point. That means, what happens in Bali does not stay in Bali.

From a communication perspective, we often think of “impact” as something we only talk about after everything is finished. But being involved in the BizConnect ToT, even from behind the scenes, I got to see how that impact actually starts. It comes from the discussions, the brainstorming, and the early drafts of ideas that can eventually turn into real opportunities for students across the region.

As someone who’s just starting out and is also part of the youth, it feels reassuring to know that conversations like these are actually about us. About whether education systems can keep up with how fast things are changing, and whether we’ll be ready when we step into the workforce. Because for a lot of us, the road ahead can feel hard to navigate. But seeing something like this being built, makes it feel a little less like we’re figuring it out alone. Now, maybe the future will not feel so uncertain after all.