MHC students compete in HRC West 2023
Applying knowledge from the classroom to solve real business problems is a challenge that four Medicine Hat College (MHC) students were willing to accept to compete in HRC West, the leading human resources case competition, sponsored by Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (CPHR), on Mar. 3 and 4.To prepare for the competition, members of MHC’s student case club, Mellisa Whingwiri, Michelle Solon, Steven Ralph Kronebusch and Tomica Daley took part in internal case competitions judged by their mentors, Dillon Batsel and Miranda Davies, faculty from the school of business and continuing studies. Simulating real case competitions, students had to remain in a classroom, without technology, to analyze and find solutions to business problems.
Second-year business administration student, Solon, says the internal case competitions allowed the team to work quickly and feedback helped them to improve.
“There was a lot of practice in the weeks leading up. We had two big case studies where we were in a room for four hours, to do everything like how a competition would be and then we would present it,” says Solon.
On competition day, the students were confronted with a case from an Alberta construction company, seeking solutions for their employee recruitment and retention. The students had just three hours to analyze the case, create a presentation and rehearse before presenting to a panel of judges. Solutions created by the students were inspired by their human resources course, along with their accounting, management, and marketing courses.
Kronebusch says the experience allowed his team to gain essential skills that they will carry with them into the remainder of their studies and careers.
“You need to be able to kind of think quickly and on your feet, be creative and understand what it takes to do certain things from a business perspective,” says Kronebusch. “You can say that you're going to do something, but if you don’t actually know how to interpret it, the judges are going to challenge you.”
Of the competition, the students agree, the experience and the ability to network with others from across Western Canada made it a valuable experience.
“I would definitely recommend and endorse the case competition to other people,” says Daley. “It may seem daunting at first, but it was really good exposure to meet other people from different faculties. And to be very honest, you meet people from different disciplines all over. It was really an interesting process.”
A team of four more MHC students are taking their turn this weekend for the Alberta Deans of Business Case Competition, Mar. 16-18.