Online edition of Daily News

Participants at the Bright Ideas workshop Kandy was organised by the Kandy Central Province Women’s Chamber of Small Industries and Commerce sponsored by Shell LiveWIRE.

Shell LiveWIRE, a community investment initiative of Shell Sri Lanka, aimed at developing and encouraging young entrepreneurs, conducted two "Bright Ideas" workshops in Kandy recently. Sponsored by the Shell LiveWIRE Trust, the first "Bright Ideas" workshop in Kandy was organised by the Central Province Women's Chamber of Small Industries and Commerce for a group of twenty-six youth from the district.

The young participants, averaging 23 years are following a two-year Marketing Diploma course at the Aruppala Vocational Training school. Shell LiveWIRE is committed to raising awareness of start-up businesses as a realistic and attractive alternative to conventional employment among those in the age range of 16-32, and works with regionally based organisations to fulfil this aim.

Commenting on the workshop participants, LiveWIRE's Project Manager Piyumi Samaraweera said, "Bright Ideas" is a popular workshop because it is flexible, unique and free as Marketing students, this particular group showed a great deal of enthusiasm and promise because many already had a preference for the enterprise option-even the resource persons were inspired by the audience' participation".

Lakravi Yapa said "We really fell into the correct track after this workshop-now I can actually start thinking about generating a suitable business idea for my self". "I want to thank Shell LiveWIRE for bringing "Bright Ideas" to us but I also want to request that LiveWIRE and the Women's Chamber continue to assist us once we complete our Marketing program so that we can turn our skills into a service delivery business", Inoka Chandani Bandara said.

"Shell LiveWIRE has given these youth, an important start, and we at the chamber intend to give them assistance in terms of the continuous training and networking that they may need" Randeni said. However, according to Shyamalee, though the Women's Chamber is prepared to provide the basic infrastructure needed to assist these entrepreneurial youth, it would need additional finances to fund any extra training programs they may need in the future.

While one hundred "Bright Ideas" workshops were held the year 2002 spanning the Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Gampaha, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Monaragala and Colombo districts, this was the first workshop to be held in the Kandy district.

Since the inception of the workshop program in October 2000, Shell LiveWIRE has conducted over 180 "Bright Ideas" workshops throughout the island, which have been administered throughout the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Uva, North Central, Central and Southern Provinces.

The "Bright Ideas" workshops aim to promote the option of enterprise to a wide audience, as well as to help participants identify the correct attitude, mind frame, and characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.

The Shell LiveWIRE program is currently active in fifteen countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, and Oman. Shell LiveWIRE was set up in Sri Lanka in December 1999 as the pilot program of the globalisation of the Shell International LiveWIRE program, and has since established itself as a benchmark, acting as a model for the LiveWIRE projects in countries such as Mauritius, Bhutan and Pakistan.