Education

CIM Sri Lanka Region wins award

For the fourth consecutive year CIM Sri Lanka Region has been conferred the award for Best Overall Improvement Professional and Studying Members - Overseas at the CIM International Chairmen’s Conference held recently at CIM Headquarters - Moor Hall - in UK.

Director of Membership, CIM, UK; Chris Daly, Chief Executive, CIM, UK; Roderick Wilkes, Chairman, CIM, UK Chris Lenton and Chairman, CIM, Sri Lanka Region Shiraz Latiff.

Out of the two awards presented at this year’s ICC Awards Ceremony, CIM Sri Lanka Region was singled out for this prestigious award amongst all overseas regions for the most innovative, comprehensive and result-oriented strategy and plans for the year 2007/2008, their successful implementation and their outstanding results.

Chairman, CIM Sri Lanka Region, Shiraz Latiff, speaking of the achievement stated “The award that we received is an endorsement of the commitment and passion displayed by the Sri Lanka team in particular and CIM members overall in this Region. We are confident that with the continuous support from our members, we can keep the Sri Lanka flag flying.”

During 2007/2008, CIM Sri Lanka Region has taken several important initiatives towards enhancing value created towards its membership. One such initiative was the extended payment plan and the local currency payment scheme, which has been recognised as one of the most innovative initiatives to have been introduced during the year by an overseas CIM Region.

The CIM Student Chapters was another initiative taken during the year with the objective of introducing the principles of marketing to school children and promoting marketing as a career. CIM Sri Lanka Region established the first CIM Student Chapter at Trinity College, Kandy. The Institute expects to set up fifteen Student Chapters in several other schools by the end of the year.

Taking itself to a greater height, The Chartered Institute of Marketing, Sri Lanka Region launched its first member group outside Sri Lanka in the Maldives in July, 2008. Continuing with its expansion strategy, CIM Sri Lanka Region expects to launch member groups in other neighbouring South Asian Countries in the immediate future.

CIM Sri Lanka Region has constantly campaigned, inculcating marketing best practices whilst promoting marketing as a profession. During the year, CIM Sri Lanka Region also had frequent CPD programmes, namely CIM Professional Series and CIM Talking Point programmes which addressed diverse themes empowering marketers to face the challenges ahead of them, successfully.

During 2007/2008, CIM Sri Lanka Region recorded a growth of 13.6 per cent in studying members and 23 per cent growth in professional members owing to its continuous drive for excellence and value created around the CIM qualification.

CIM Sri Lanka Region rejuvenated the activities of the Market Interest Groups (MIGs) during the year which have been initiated with the objective of promoting the marketing input in the industrial sector, thereby instilling marketing knowledge within non marketers. MIG - Tea, Leisure, Financial Services and Retail sectors have taken several initiatives towards achieving this objective.

Sri Lanka pioneers into TAFE Australia’s hairdressing industry

Leading hairdresser Cheryl Gooneratne recently returned from Australia having successfully been assessed by the Educational Manager in Hairdressing Level III and Level IV in TAFESA, Adelaide, Tea Tree Gully Campus Merrill Gratton.

She became the first Sri Lankan hairdresser to fall in line with the Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) through the TAFE system Australia.

certificate: Advisor to the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training Lionel Pinto presenting the certificate to Cheryl Gooneratne.

With a growing number of students following hairdressing in Sri Lanka and with opportunities for better prospects overseas in this trade, Cheryl’s achievement is timely.

The TAFE Level III Certificate will be conducted for the first time in Sri Lanka at the Cheryl Gooneratne Academy of Hairdressing in collaboration with TAFE Sri Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.

This will give students an opening in deciding the options of continuing the programme to the next level, obtaining employment overseas and also not having to incur expenses in training in Australia to obtain the same certificate.

TAFE Sri Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, headed by Lionel Pinto, is an organisation established under Private Public Partnership framework (PPP) under the patronage of the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training Sri Lanka.

The Australian Certificate Level III in hairdressing has been designed as the standard entry level qualification for the hairdressing industry.

Likely functions in the hairdressing industry for those who achieve this qualification are employment as a hairdresser working as part of a team in a salon, performing processes that require a range of well developed skills where discretion and judgment is required with responsibility for own outputs and responsibility for the supervision of others including apprentices.

Cheryl Gooneratne, has been a pioneer in the field of hairdressing, is teacher trained internationally and is an External Verifier for City & Guilds Sri Lanka.

Kent Ridge Customer Service Programmes open new avenues

Customer Service now has a highly recognised career path unlike in the past and therefore young people could focus on that and go up the ladder to hold executive positions in companies, General Manager Customer Service Suntel Ltd Savanthi Jayawickrama said.

She was addressing the participants of the inaugural Kent Ridge Certificate in Customer Service programme held at the National Vocational Training Institute in Colombo last week.

The Kent Ridge Certificate in Customer Service programme is the first of it kinds in Sri Lanka which focuses on career path in the field of customer service and there are opportunities even for school leavers from Trainee Customer Service Executive to senior level positions. It also has many opportunities outside Sri Lanka specially in Middle East countries, she said.

A researcher in Customer Service at the University of Colombo Dr. Saman Dasanayake said customer service has emerged as a profession with an increasing demand overseas creating many employment opportunities to those who are qualified. Director Kent Ridge Pvt Ltd Janaka Kumarasinghe said that some reputed companies have already offered employment opportunities to those who complete the first programme.

New MBA batch at PIM

The Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) recently inducted a new batch of MBA student-managers. PIM pioneered the MBA programme in Sri Lanka, and has, over the past two decades, produced more than 2500 alumni with Masters degrees in management. They hold senior positions in both the private and public sectors in Sri Lanka and abroad.

Managing Director, Cargill’s (Ceylon) PLC Ranjith Page was the Chief Guest at the inauguration, Director, PIM, Dr. Uditha Liyanage, and Managing Director, PIM International Centre in Emirates, Prof. Gunapala Nanayakkara, Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria, Prof. David Evans, and Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri of PIM also addressed the gathering.

PIM has recently re-engineered its MBA programme and enhanced its quality and relevance. The MBA programme now spans exactly 24 months and helps its participants to strike the vital work-life-learn balance.

Practical assignments, projects and group work, make PIM’s MBA the most sought after MBA programme, where the emphasis is placed on being an MBA rather than having one. A highly qualified and experienced core faculty is enriched by an expert visiting faculty, consisting of captains of industry, who have a sound theoretical and academic background.