Bearcat Career Experience

Where will your passions take you... this summer?

In order to complement the academic instruction our students are receiving here at International School Manila (ISM), we believe in the importance of gaining some “real world” career experience to assist them in their high school journey of self-discovery.

The vision and goal of the Bearcat Career Experience program is for a pool of our dedicated and motivated students to be exposed to the specific responsibilities of a selected profession, so that they can experience the day to day operations of a particular field, and to learn some of the necessary transferable employee skills.

In the past, we have placed over 100 students into more than 30 companies from a variety of fields in the Metro Manila area. These companies included Alaska Milk, Asian Development Bank, International Labour Organization, and Makati Medical Center (to name just a few).

Specific responsibilities for each ISM student will vary depending on the company/field and the “Career Experience” developed by each company. However, as a general rule, the placements offer an enriching experience that includes giving students various “real world” responsibilities (based on the companies' needs and the abilities/desires of the student), as well as job shadowing opportunities to experience the expertise of employees at each place of work. Formal and informal discussions take place between companies and our students with respect to the particular industry, the skills valued by employers, and significant trends in the selected industry.

There is a lot of flexibility in how a company might schedule the Bearcat Career Experience week. As such, each ISM student benefits from the particular strengths of the company he/she is placed in. We have also been told that many of our partner companies have gained valuable insights into their operations by having our students visit their workplace environment.

The Bearcat Career Experience might not continue to its present format due to the global pandemic. Any questions please contact hscounseling@ismanila.org

BCE Former Partners:

• Asian Development Bank
• Asian Eye Institute
• Enderun College
• Fairmont Raffles 
• International Organization for Migration
• Makati Medical City 
• Makati Shangri-La
• Plaza + Partners Inc.  
• St. Luke's Medical Center BGC
• Unilever
• Zalora