Top CIM (UK) officials visit Sri Lanka

A top level delegation from The Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) including the Director - Education, Professor Keith Fletcher; Regional Director - Education, Ian Marshall and the Head of Education, Susan Ward, visited Sri Lanka recently.

The objective of the visit was to study the Sri Lankan market; more importantly to build awareness of the new syllabus, which is effective from June 2008.

In order to familiarize the tutors with the syllabus revisions, a seminar was held recently at Water’s Edge, attended by over forty lecturers representing the CIM Accredited Study Centers in the country. The new syllabus will be introduced phase by phase.

To begin with, the assignment based evaluation will be introduced for the CIM Professional Certificate in Marketing from December 2008. The new assessment system will train students to think more “out-of-the-box”, thereby meeting the requirements of the industry while being more competitive in the job market.

The UK officials, accompanied by the Chairman of the CIM Sri Lanka Region, Shiraz Latiff, Ajith Medis (Head of Education) and Priyanthi Seneviratne (Head of Operations) from the CIM Sri Lanka Region met Director, Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) Dr. Uditha Liyanage to discuss the Senior Managers programme that will be lunched in 2009, in collaboration with PIM.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing Sri Lanka Region also organised a get-together at the Ceylon Continental Hotel recently for University Deans to coincide with the UK officials’ visit. Vice Chancellors, University Deans and Senior Lecturers representing the Eastern, Kelaniya, Ruhuna, Sabaragamuwa, Sri Jayawardenapura and Wayamba Universities participated in the event.

The UK delegation also visited some of the CIM Accredited Study Centers. Prof. Keith Fletcher, speaking of the tour, mentioned that it had been a pleasure to see how marketing as a profession is being developed in Sri Lanka, being an exemplar to the entire South Asian Region. He congratulated the CIM Sri Lanka Region, CIM Accredited Tuition Centers and all the CIM members on their contribution to this development.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world’s largest and most prestigious professional body for marketing and The Chartered Institute of Marketing Sri Lanka Region is the fastest growing CIM body, with nearly 1,080 members and almost 3,000 student members.