Top > Corporate Social Responsibility > [Activity Report] Business Activities > Providing New Value
- Aspen/Berlitz Global Leadership Seminar
- New Shinkenzemi Senior High School Course
- New Nursing Home Series Cocochi Opens
- Rokasuifutei Reproduces the Good Old Days
- Benesse Educational Research & Development Center
- BEAT Endowment
- University Entrance Materials Help Students Prepare for the Future
- Simul Academy Internet Courses Launched
- Launch of Overseas University Prep Courses
- Development of CONET STYLE
Aspen/Berlitz Global Leadership Seminar
The seminar was held on Naoshima Island
In December 2010, Berlitz and Aspen Institute Japan teamed up to hold the Aspen/Berlitz Global Leadership Seminar for future global leaders as part of the global leadership training business.
The seminar was held on the island of Naoshima and included discussions about classical writings, and one-on-one discussions with executives who are active as global leaders. Furthermore, the 17 attendees were given the opportunity to appreciate a wide range of modern art on Naoshima. They also gained an insight into what is required of a global leader in terms of education in history, culture, and the arts, as well as a high level of awareness and a clear sense of values as well. All attendees gave the seminar the thumbs up as being a meaningful few days.
New Shinkenzemi Senior High School Course
In April 2011, Benesse Corporation’s Shinkenzemi launched a new senior high school course that incorporates PCs and mobile devices (iPod touch® *1, iPod touch® iPhone®*2), in addition to traditional paper-based learning. This course is designed to respond to the changing lifestyles and learning environments of today’s high school students.
The new course enables students to identify their own required learning and academic workload through “visualization.” In addition, it teaches students how to utilize downtime to efficiently raise academic performance in ways only possible with digital learning aids. More than 90% of students who took part in a monitoring survey following the launch of the new course said that they can now effectively utilize downtime.
*1 iPod touch® is a trademark of Apple Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries
*2 iPhone® is a trademark of Apple Inc
Educational software on an iPod touch®
New Nursing Home Series Cocochi Opens
The dining room in the Cocochi Noda nursing home
In June 2011, Bon Sejour Corporation opened Cocochi as the sixth brand of nursing home operated by the Benesse Group. The senior/nursing care business has long provided nursing homes with different pricing structures to meet customer needs. Cocochi homes are even more affordably priced in order to answer to increasingly diverse needs. Cocochi offers a number of plans, which enable residents to live alone or with family. The concept behind Cocochi is for residents to enjoy unadorned lives that suit them in familiar settings.
Rokasuifutei Reproduces the Good Old Days
Benesse Style Care Co., Ltd. opened Rokasuifutei in June 2010 on the site of a traditional Japanese house built in 1934 in an effort to respond to diversifying needs. The home reproduces the atmosphere of the good old days by retaining the former house’s Japanese garden and beautiful transoms. Reflecting the wishes of residents who want to lead independent lives, all rooms have mini-kitchens. Wheelchair-bounds residents are also able to move around as freely as possible, with safety and security of all spaces a key design feature. The aim of these homes is to create comfortable living spaces for residents even as their physical conditions change.
The beautiful green Japanese garden
The family room retained the transoms from the former house
Benesse Educational Research & Development Center
The Benesse Educational Research & Development Center, a Benesse Corporation research institute, works on research and development activities targeted at a broad spectrum of people, including learners ranging from young children to university students and working people as well as their parents and guardians, teachers and schools. The institute also forecasts possible changes in the educational environment inside and outside Japan over the medium and long term, and provides accurate information based on its unique research. At the same time, more advanced R&D activities have been directed toward the study of how to improve the content of education and teaching methods as well as assessments and measurements. The Basic Research on Academic Performance, which was launched in 1997, was produced for the fifth time in fiscal 2010. This survey analyzes and publishes continuously collected educational data, and has won recognition from many educators.
BEAT Endowment
Benesse Corporation aims to help create environments that support learning tailored to individual needs using the latest technologies by providing endowments to Benesse Department of Educational Advanced Technology, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, University of Tokyo (BEAT). Presently, BEAT is researching learning environments using social media, with findings due to be reported in fiscal 2012. Benesse Corporation views these endowments as part of R&D activities for its education business, and intends to provide educational services fit for the future based on the results of this joint research. Benesse Corporation is also promoting highly original practical research between industry and academia.
University Entrance Materials Help Students Prepare for the Future
Shinken-AD Co., Ltd. has released university entrance materials with the goal of helping high school students going on to university to lead full university lives. Released in November 2010, these educational materials connect what is learned at university with the real world, providing a source of learning for the future rather than repeating what is learned at high school. These materials should raise motivation, foster expectations for university, and create and maintain study habits.
The educational materials consist of comprehensive texts filled with the minimum basic knowledge required for taking university classes, tasks submitted for marking and guidance, and a work book for self-directed learning. The materials are aimed at high school students wishing to advance to tertiary education in nursing and medicine. In fiscal 2011, Shinken-AD Co., Ltd. plans to release similar materials for students hoping to study science and engineering, social science, nutrition, or childcare.
This comprehensive textbook provides high school students with information
about studying nursing and medicine at tertiary level
Simul Academy Internet Courses Launched
Taping of a Simul Academy Internet Course
Simul International, Inc. in January 2011 launched Simul Academy Internet Courses having developed a curriculum suited to Internet-based learning. The courses respond to the needs of people who want to enhance their communication skills without being restricted by lesson time or place. They are targeted at people aiming to become interpreters and those with an interest in interpreting, as well as people who want to hone their practical English and communication abilities. The courses therefore offer a higher level program to a wider group of people than previous classroom-based lessons.
Simul Academy Internet Courses 
(Japanese only)
Launch of Overseas University Prep Courses
In April 2011, Ochanomizu Seminar Co., Ltd. launched Overseas University Prep Courses (English) for high school students wanting to learn usable English. The courses eye full-fledged internationalization of Japanese society in the future. Taught by native English speakers only in English, the interactive classes and pair work with fellow students makes for effective learning. In this way, the courses both prepare students for university entrance exams and provide them with practical English.
Ochanomizu Seminar Co., Ltd. has also developed Voice-Doctor, a teaching tool that uses the voices of native English speakers for existing normal English classes. Students can practice note taking and other listening skills by listening to natively spoken English, providing them with a way of improving their English ability so they can communicate effectively at university and in society.
University Prep Courses (Japanese only)
Development of CONET STYLE
CONET STYLE
Tokyo Individualized Educational Institute, Inc. has developed Conet Style, a proprietary instruction system that weds know-how amassed systematically over many years and the Benesse Group’s best academic content. Conet Style provides total support for improving students’ academic ability. Besides offering learning materials suited to each student, Conet Style communicates processes for realizing goals and academic achievement in an easy-to-understand way to parents and guardians.
This system was introduced in 125 classrooms in November 2010, and has already shown that it produces improvements in deviation scores in simulated exams and amount of learning for first- and second-year junior high school students and for third-year students as part of their high school entrance exam preparations. Plans call for the system to be introduced in all classrooms and cover the entire curriculum during 2011.
