The event Best of Class is an initiative on the IST Management Challenge Program, a strategy and management competition reserved for students of the Instituto Superior Técnico enrolled in the Management curricular unit, which relies on the partnership of the company “Simuladores e Modelos de Gestão” (SDG) sponsored by EDP and Accenture. This event brought together several teams of IST students who were invited by EDP to spend a day in the iconic Museum of Electricity, having had the opportunity to get to know the Company better and what it has to offer them in terms of career opportunities.

By allowing students to develop and demonstrate their potential in the business Management area, IST Management Challenge unfolds in two steps. The first part takes place online on the course of each semester, where teams of 3 to 5 students take their turn in managing a company with the goal to obtain the best results for their company in the market in which they compete. The second phase is called Best of Class, where only the teams that were better qualified in the previous stage are invited to participate. Two of these events are held each year, one dedicated to the best teams of the 1st semester and another for the 2nd semester students. Out of these two events a total of 8 teams will represent EDP in the next edition of the Global Management Challenge, a competition organized by SDG and Jornal Expresso

Besides the opportunity to learn more about EDP, the IST students had the opportunity to visit the museum and to attend a workshop where they demonstrated their capability to solve challenges. “It is a good experience of connection to the business world,” emphasizes Professor João Soares, responsible for the Management curricular unit at IST. João Torre, one of the students who participated in one of these initiatives, says “- I liked it a lot and I wouldn’t mind at all to repeat it. I think it is one of the best initiatives that I have seen on the part of the IST as well as EDP, an opinion shared by Márcia Santos, another participant: “I think the event was very useful for all of the students here. The two challenges proposed in the course of this day allowed us to launch ideas and learn how to defend them, making the event more interesting and challenging. ”

The second Best of Class will be held on December 3rd.