Business Education

‘Hospitality education booming’

Hathoon Sheriffdeen

Hospitality education is booming as there are lucrative offers for hotel management and craft courses in culinary and pastry and bakery workers overseas, the Principal, International Hotel School of Mount Lavinia Hotel, Mahendra Hulangamuwa said at the reception ceremony of the Hotel School.

“This intake we have got forty students for the diploma in hotel management and thirty five students for the six months craft course. Students are very keen to study the craft course in pastry and bakery. Certificate in pastry and bakery has a great demand in countries like Australia on their migration programmes. Also many countries demand skilled hospitality workers at an attractive remuneration, he said.

“Our courses are recognised by Thames Valley University of London, Schilies International University of France and Switzerland, International Hotel Management Institute Switzerland and the William Angeliss Institute of Australia.

These hotel management Institutions give significant exemptions for their courses to our students,” Hulangamuwa said.

He said, “International Hotel School of Mount Lavinia’s educational programmes has an enormous amount of direct hands-on trainings at the Mount Lavinia Hotel. During the period our students are trained at Mount Lavinia Hotel. This will mould the students to five star standard.

“This is the 33rd intake of International Hotel School of Mount Lavinia, and our students are given indirect exposure on the development of soft skills by interacting with various local and international experienced personnel in the hospitality industry,” Hulangamuwa said.

“International Hotel School of Mount Lavinia entered the field seventeen years before and we have generated 350 hospitality professionals so far, and we force them to face all type of challenges in the industry on their early stages,” he said.

“I was trained at the International Hotel School of Mount Lavinia. This is the foundation of my profession. The School tuned up my soft skills and it was much informal.

My colleagues were also in good positions in the industry. We belong to the 1993 batch one of the earliest batches after the Schools’ formation. I was working for the Ceylon Tourist Board in UK and now I am planning to establish a new company in the industry, “ A former student of the International Hotel School of Mount Lavinia, Jean-Marc Flambert said at the event.

CIC Agri businesses provides library

As a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, CIC Agri Businesses continued its efforts of uplifting Rural Education with the construction of a complete library for the Students of Hingurakgoda Kanishta Vidyalaya.

The construction of the library was financed by the Company as another of its CSR initiatives while all the employees contributed towards the purchase of the thousand plus books. The library was declared open by Provincial Director of Education-North Central Province S.G.M.C.K. Seneviratne on June 16.

According to the Principal of Hingurakgoda Kanishta Vidyalaya Y.P. Sirisena CIC Agri Businesses has been in the forefront of the development of this remote school.

“Over the last few years CIC Agri Businesses has contributed greatly towards the development of the school which a few years ago was on the verge of closing.

In 2004 we approached the management of CIC Agri Business to help us resurrect the school and they obliged by providing the school with new buildings and furniture, a shrine room and also a pipe borne water system.

Today I am proud that we have over 150 students in this school and 13 teachers with classes from grade one to ten”, said the principal.

The principal also welcomed the construction of a well equipped Library.” “A Library is very important for these poor students who never get the opportunity of reading books and increasing their knowledge. Although the students are keen and interested they cannot afford to buy books and so the opportunity provided by CIC Agri Businesses is appreciated”, commented the School Head.

CIC Agri Businesses has formed a special unit within their organisation to spearhead all CSR Activities of the Company. headed by the Director HR and Corporate Affairs, Marlon Fernandopulle the CSR unit works closely with the rural students to uplift their Education.

The company has based all its CSR activities on the theme ‘Manussakama’ - Humanity. Earlier this year the Company gave away 50 scholarships for students who had excelled in the Grade Five Scholarship examination.

In a novel project CIC Agri Businesses has begun conducting English lessons for young rural school children in Hingurakgoda. According to the Chairman of the CSR unit Marlon Fernandopulle, English Language classes are conducted twice a week after school hours for over one hundred students in Hingurakgoda.

The results have been very encouraging and the students have shown a great interest in learning English. As a result CIC Agri Businesses is looking at expanding this programme to other rural areas of the country.

Staffordshire University conducts enrolment seminar at APIIT

Dr Hamish Main, Director - South Asian Partnerships of Staffordshire University visited Sri Lanka for presentations on the higher education system in the UK and to conduct interviews and offer spot admissions to Staffordshire University.

The interview sessions were conducted on June 11. The students were provided free of charge career guidance advice, and assistance in selecting study programmes.

A large number of students interested in studying in the UK and their parents took part in the presentations and consultation sessions. The prospective students and their parents were able to obtain detailed information on the university study programmes, accommodation facilities, job placement opportunities, and career progression in the UK.

Some of the lucky candidates received spot admissions for undergraduate and postgraduate awards of the University. The next interview session will be held on July 21 at the APIIT City Campus.

Over the years, APIIT - Sri Lanka has been paving the way for a large number of students to obtain a British degree from Staffordshire University (SU) while studying at its City Campus in Colombo.

For this purpose, APIIT City Campus provides outstanding facilities for teaching/learning similar to those available in British universities. However, Staffordshire University runs several hundred cutting edge courses on its campuses in the UK and it is not practical to bring all these programmes to Colombo.

It is therefore necessary to find ways and means of allowing our students to benefit from these first class learning opportunities at Staffordshire University. With this objective in mind, Staffordshire University has set up a permanent office at the APIIT City Campus in Colombo to provide Sri Lankan students with information about all University programmes and to facilitate their transfer for study in the UK.

Staffordshire University Sri Lanka Office facilitates direct entry to an extensive range of courses at foundation, certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate level in the areas of Arts, Media and Design; Business and Law; Computing, Engineering and Technology; and Health and Sciences. The SU Sri Lanka Office provides up-to-date information on all these study programmes.

In addition, the SU Sri Lanka Office provides career guidance and counseling service to help students select appropriate study programmes, assists students with visa application, and coordinates with the University Departments for exemptions for prior learning (eg HND, CIMA, CIM etc). All these services are provided free of charge.