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Education
'Inspiring the NEXT' Career Fair
by Edward Weerasinghe, Kelaniya Group corre.
"Inspiring the NEXT Career Fair and Personal Development Programme
for the year 2008 organised by the Career Guidance Unit of the
University of Kelaniya will be held at the University of Kelaniya on
February 18 from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. The chief guest at the opening
ceremony will be the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya Prof.
M.J.S. Wijeratne.
The Project Chairman Dr. M.P. Deeyamulla said that this NEXT Career
Fair seeks to bring together hundreds of new graduates and the best of
Sri Lanka's cooperate world.
This event is heavily focused on matching company expectations with
under graduate qualifications. This will enable both parties to make the
most out of this opportunity to meet and find ground that is mutually
beneficial.
Dr. Deeyamulla further explained that "clearly this is not your
average job fair. Starting months in advance of the week of interviews,
students will undergo training that will help them develop their skills.
Comprised of development sessions, workshops and a myriad of other
activities, this initiative is one of the most ambitious of its kind.
For students, it's a golden opportunity to brush up on the skills needed
by the ever-competitive corporate sector. Employers, on the other hand
will strive to make use of the smart, educated and above all, yet
untapped, human resource pool placed before them."
The first part of this project was started in December 2007, with
workshops and training programmes geared towards giving students
knowledge, exposure and confidence in facing the cooperate world.
These programmes included sessions on the development of
interpersonal assets and other skills.
Director of Career Guidance Unit of the University of Kelaniya said
that this phase was held throughout December and January, culminating
into the Career Fair itself which is on the 18th of this month. On this
day employers from around Sri Lanka will interview candidates that took
part in the workshops and select the most suitable participants.
Project Chairman Dr. M.P. Deeyamulla further explained that the main
objectives are to provide an opportunity for corporate sector to recruit
prospective employees by accessing a pool of fresh graduates to enhance
the skills of undergraduates to face interviews with confidence to
motivate undergraduates to be desirable employees and to lesson the gulf
and to strengthen the link between the university and the corporate
world.
The undergraduates who are selected to participate in the project
will go through personal development programmes in the form of workshops
and seminars on soft skills, entrepreneurship and other related areas.
Only the participants of these workshops will be qualified for the
Career Fair where the companies will individually interview the
applicants. The students selected for the Career Fair will be
categorised according to their preferred fields.
All participating companies will get the CVs of the students based on
their area of requirement prior to the Career Fair.
Thus the participating companies will be provided with the
opportunity of selecting a talented group of individuals to be
interviewed personally.
Nearly 1,000 undergraduates from Science Faculty, Commerce and
Management Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Kelaniya
will participate. The main sponsor is Seylan Bank.
Smiles were brought to the faces of the children in the
Sirikandurawatte, Hikkaduwa Tsunami village when Lanka Bell distributed
gift packs among them through the company's 'Vikasitha Kekulu'
children's project, recently.
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‘Vikasitha Kekula’ in Hikkaduwa |
Toys, school items and stationery were included in the gift packs
which were distributed by company staff. The staff spent a full day with
the children and participated in activities to cheer them up.
These included entertainment acts such as magic shows, sing-along
sessions and dance acts by popular TV and radio personalities. More than
2500 adults and children participated in this event and expressed their
appreciation of the effort made by Lanka Bell on their behalf.
The only 100 per cent Sri Lankan owned company in the
telecommunications sector, Lanka Bell is the second largest 'fixed line'
provider in the local telecommunications sector with nearly 800,000
subscribers. The company was established in 1997 with an initial
investment of US$ 150 million and was the pioneer of CDMA technology in
Sri Lanka. Lanka Bell has invested more than Rs 6 billion in its
operations
CIM initiates making marketers more accountable
"The growing emphasis on increasing shareholder value has brought
each activity in an organisation under a 'microscope' of value addition,
where each decision is evaluated in terms of its contribution towards
increasing shareholder value - the ultimate purpose of existence of any
commercial organisation.
Consequently, marketers who were traditionally preoccupied with
increasing customer satisfaction are now being required to justify their
decisions in terms of raising the bottomlines of the companies," said
Mario Fonseka, at a CIM Professional Series programme titled 'Marketing
Accountability - The New Shift In Performance', held recently at the
Garnet Room, Ceylon Continental Hotel.
The programme was organised by The Chartered Institute of Marketing
Sri Lanka Region which drew over 35 participants who found the programme
interesting and important.
Fonseka began the presentation with an insight into the change in
landscape of marketing which has urged marketers to be 'accountable' in
what they do.
He stated that marketers must refuse to accept 'advertising waste'
and the flamboyant advertising campaigns which were earlier evaluated in
non-financial terms are now increasingly under pressure to bring in
tangible results that are reflected in 'figures'.
It was mentioned that even though marketing is the primary driver of
an organisation's financial performance, marketing has failed to gain
due recognition at the strategic level, owing to the lack of
'accountability'.
He emphasised on the need to make other organisational functions
understand and appreciate the true contribution of marketing towards the
achievement of the ultimate organisational objective and urged the need
to create 'marketing credibility'.
The programme covered areas from, how to introduce and enhance
marketing accountability in organisations, to some of the latest
developments in the field; such as, Marketing Investment Management (MIM),
Marketing Return on Investment (MROI), Marketing NPV and the Marketing
Dashboard.
'Marketing Accountability - The New Shift In Performance' was the
first CIM Professional Series programme for this year. |
