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Speech made by Ajith Nivard Cabraal at the Careers Day of the University of Moratuwa on Saturday, November 16, 2002.

Mr. Chairman, Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Professors, Graduates, Undergraduates, Ladies and Gentlemen, When Professor Dayantha Wijesekera invited me on behalf of the student body which is organizing the Careers Day at the University of Moratuwa, to be the Chief Guest, I was delighted to accept the invitation. I then contemplated as to what I should use as the theme of my keynote address and after some thought, I decided that I should approach the topic in the simplest form, which is to consider the topic, "Are you ready?" from the aspects of Who? What? When? How? and Where?

Ajith Nivard Cabraal

Let's take the question: "Who?" first, Who are You? In my view, you are the most intelligent persons in our society. You constitute the upper 2% of the student population in our country. Further, you are persons from whom society expects at some stage of time, to assume positions of responsibility. You are persons who are holding out that you are persons of some standing, knowledge and skills. The country and society have great expectations of you and perhaps that is one of the reasons as to why successive governments spend such vast sums of monies on your education and training. So, you would see that all of you are a privileged lot and are persons from whom much is expected.

Now, let us consider the question as to "What" should you be ready for? In this context, I believe you should get ready to perform the functions expected of you in relation to the skills and knowledge you are deemed to possess. You should be prepared to take leadership roles while at the same time be able to function as a team member of whatever team you belong to. In addition, you should be ready to communicate well in the English language because that would be your passport to a wide and exciting future.

You should be ready and able to manage human resources well. I know many degree as well as professional courses do not give sufficient attention to the human resources management angle and aspects. This is very unfortunate. To be successful you should be ready to manage your boss, peers and subordinates, and those are skills that you should try to acquire. Further, be ready to face the challenges of the globalized environment and also be ready to keep abreast of current developments in your professional and other areas.

You must strive to prepare yourself to become an "interesting" person with a wide repertoire of interesting subjects at your fingertips.

Let us now consider as to "When" you must be ready. In this context my thoughts are that you should be ready to face the world at the time you qualify from this University. A few days ago, one of our young cricketers Jehan Mubarak made his test debut in the test match against South Africa. At that time itself, Johan Mubarak will have to be ready to face the South African bowlers at their full cry and might.

There will be no quarter given nor asked. In the same way, when you qualify, you will have to be ready to face the challenges of the time. The world out there is cruel and harsh. You will not be treated with sympathy or with kid-gloves just because you are new to the game. You must be prepared and ready to face the world as soon you get to the open chaotic world. You will have to learn to thrive on chaos, and not feel sorry for yourself and expect everyone to give you a hand and treat you with sympathy.

Remember no one will employ you, continue to pay you a salary, and keep you going just because you are graduate. In any progressive organization, qualifications would only serve to give you an edge at the time of recruitment. Once you are in, you will be judged by what you deliver. You will be rewarded based on what you achieve. You will advance in the organization through the results and outcomes that you help fashion. So the simple message is, you must be prepared and ready to deliver from the time you qualify and start serving an organisation right up to the time you retire and maybe even... beyond.

The next point I would like to discuss is as to "How" you become ready. In this regard, I believe you have already done the initial work that is expected of you. You have studied hard, worked diligently, and passed your examinations. You have undergone practical work and training courses which has prepared you.

From now, you have to start on a new agenda to become really ready. You have to develop a practical focus. You also have to develop a sound and positive attitude. You have to develop in yourself a feeling that you can do it. You must believe in yourself and be persevering.

Don't give up. Cultivate an inquiring mind and be ready to learn from whichever quarter, the lessons that life will be constantly teaching you. Another important method of making yourself ready is to listen. Very often, we tend to talk more than listen. Perhaps we should take in cue from the fact that we have two ears, but only one mouth. That, then should provide us clue that we should listen twice as much as we talk. Now, let us consider as to "Where" and for what positions we should make ourselves ready. This is a very important aspect in the context of today's global village. We must appreciate that the standards for which we should prepare ourselves should be not just the national standards, but international standards. We have to aim at becoming internationally competent. No longer will it suffice to be nationally competent.

My comments so far generally wraps up the background and the issues connected to the question as to whether we are truly ready. But then, how would you know when you are actually ready and how would you know that as a body of persons, you are ready for employment? How would you know that you are ready to add value to organizations and that you are ready to deliver what organisations and society expects from you?

In my view, when the industrial and commercial world perceives you as being really ready, they will come in search of you. Employers will call you.

The industry will be in touch with your Professors to find out whom they can recruit long before you even qualify. But we have to realize and understand that such an outcome will not just happen automatically. It will happen only with a huge effort. It will happen only as a result of a series of initiatives that many players would have to initiate and implement.

What are these initiatives? In my view, it will have to be a three-pronged attack. That is, it will have to be a combined effort of your University, yourselves and your alumni. What should the University do? The University should constantly and consistently keep its curriculum abreast of current international practices and standards.

They must be in regular touch with industry and the prospective employers of the graduates to ensure that the end products from the University, namely its graduates, are actually of the standard and ability that the industry requires.

They must also focus extensively on the soft skills of their under graduates, such as communication, human resource management, leadership, manners, deportment, personality development, etc.

What should the undergraduates do? In my view in order to make themselves more employable, they must develop the above said soft skills in addition to their own core areas of study. They must read extensively. They must develop proficiency in English and in IT. They must keep abreast of the worldwide developments in relation to their core areas.

What should the graduates do? In Sri Lanka today, other than in a few Universities I have sadly observed the unhappy situation where once graduates pass out from a University, they hardly keep in contact with their former University. Many do not also link with their own alumni sufficiently or even form themselves into useful groups. This is very unsatisfactory. I believe the graduates of any University should be a greatest strength and pride of that University and the alumni should maintain close links with the University authorities.

They should furnish advise about the market conditions and the evolving additional and new skills that new graduates should possess. Such input would greatly assist the University to stay current and relevant and this would certainly help to improve the standards. It is my considered view that a combination of efforts of these three sectors would soon result in much better and marketable graduates being produced, and would be a very useful outcome as far as our country is concerned.

Ladies and gentlemen, at today's function and event, I have seen a very refreshing change and a new trend as well. More often than not, whenever I go for any function, I usually hear the organizers saying what others should do. "A" says what "B" should do, and "B" suggests that something should be done by "C". "C" in turn wants something done by A. So the cycle turns. I call this cycle the "someone else syndrome".

We are all guilty of it. We are all very good at stating as to what someone else should do to fix some problem or another. It is very rarely that I see people in Sri Lanka doing something themselves without grumbling or waiting for others to do it for them. But today, I have seen the opposite.

Today, I have seen a refreshing change in your "Are you ready?" programme. By proactively inviting prospective employers to your University and arranging for your undergraduates to interact with them, learn about their needs, getting a feedback from them, and most importantly, listening to them, you have addressed a key issue facing the tertiary educational establishment.

You have lit a candle whereas others are cursing the darkness. Please accept my sincere congratulations on your groundbreaking effort. I have no doubt your undergraduates would greatly benefit from this experience and this event would bring great honour and pride to your institution. I wish you all happy and prosperous careers and wish you and your University all success in your endeavours.

Are You Ready?

This careers day program is successfully organised for the 6th consecutive time. Through this programme, the participants are given an insight about the industrial interview procedure and an opportunity of facing interview. Also this has been a forum of academics, students and the industry over the past few years.

The main objectives of Are You Ready are.

To Provide the opportunity for Corporate Sector to recruit fresh graduates To develop skills of undergraduates to face interviews with confidence To strengthen the relationship between the university and the corporate sector

A brief look back:

The first Are You Ready Project: 25th April 1998

The second Are You Ready Project: 23rd January 1999

The third Are You Ready Project: 08th July 2000

The fourth Are You Ready Project: 30th June 2001

The fifth Are You Ready Project: 23rd March 2002

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