[Business Advertorial]

SME Bank finances Z-Messenger for IT/BPO Training

Evolv Institute of Management is the Sri Lanka’s first ever Training Institute that specializes in Soft Skill Training for the Sri Lankan IT/BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) sector.

It’s the accredited training body in Sri Lanka for Evolv Management Services India, which is one of the largest soft skill training body for the Indian BPO Sector.

Evolv India has trained over 70,000 students over the last four years for the Indian BPO sector which accounts more than 60% of world BPO business. Some of the Indian BPO giants that source their training solutions are accenture, wipro, aviva and dell.

The aim of Evolv Sri Lanka is to groom the Sri Lankan youth to acquire the required basic skills expected by the growing BPO sector thus to secure employment within the shortest time span.

Having understood the need for skilled youth for this BPO sector as projected by ICTA Survey 2006, which shows the industry’s demand for over 1000 candidates within this year, Evolv Sri Lanka has taken necessary steps to take this career to masses.

The biggest challenge for Evolv Lanka according to the company officials is the lack of awareness especially the student and the parent segment on the career opportunities offered by the Sri Lankan BPO/IT sector.

Most of the career preferences demonstrated by the local youth were only confined to fields such as Accountancy, Business Administration and Engineering etc, the opportunity exist in IT and BPO is overlooked. The term ‘BPO’ is still not familiar with most of the locals and the knowledge with regard to the employment is poor.

Evolv Institute Sri Lanka is determined to overcome these challenges by not only promoting it’s training but also by increasing the awareness level about the Sri Lankan IT/BPO sector and the career opportunities.

Evolv Institute will launch its training with the introduction of “Certified BPO Professional” - a Diploma program that would guarantee employment in a local BPO company.

This Diploma will have two levels, namely Certified BPO Professional (CBP) Level 1, focusing on language (English) Development and the Second level which is known as the proficiency level to train students on the basic BPO skills expected by the industry.

Egodage new MD/CEO

Roshan Egodage had been nominated Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director for Central Investment and Finance Limited (CIFL) succeeding Shirley Perera who is now promoted as Deputy Chairman of the Company from August 01.

Egodage has many years of experience in the finance sector and brings new management thoughts for the company to make CIFL “a finance Company that is most sought by all those who requires financial assistance”.

CIFL is one of the oldest finance companies in Sri Lanka. Established in 1966, CIFL is a Central Bank approved company that provides an arrary of Financial products and services to the people of Sri Lanka.

Prior to being named as the new CEO for CIFL, Egodage served as the Deputy Chief Executive Director for The Finance Company and has held many key positions at other financial institutions , namely People’s Venture capital, Central Finance and Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka.

Tokyo Cement launch research with Peradeniya University

Tokyo Cement Co-mpany and the Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya have launch a collaborative effort to enhance and strengthen the research and development activities in the area of civil engineering.

“As an industry leader Tokyo Cement Company is interested in the development of University-Industry collaborations. The Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya is committed to excellence in Engineering Education .

Therefore it is fitting that our two organisations intend to ‘Cement a Better Future’ as a result of this collaboration,” Joint Managing Director TCCL, S.R. Gnanam said.

A ceremony to launch this initiative was held at the E.O.E. Pereira Theatre of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya. The Chairman of TCCL, Edgar Gunatunga and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Prof. S.B.S. Abayakoon signed the MoU on this occasion to formalize the collaboration.

According to the MoU initially TCCL will support the research and development activities of the Civil Engineering undergraduate programme by funding final year research projects. In addition, TCCL will be providing all the cement requirements related to these research activities.

In turn, the Department of Civil Engineering will discuss with TCCL their views on R&D requirements related to the Sri Lankan construction industry and these requirements will be incorporated into the Department’s research programme.

“We both firmly believe that the coming years will witness a rapid development of this initiative to broaden the scope of our collaborative effort and in turn the local construction industry”, said Prof. Abayakoon.

This collaboration will become effective immediately with the current final year students of the Department of Civil Engineering being the first group of beneficiaries.