Education

Metropolitan Academy becomes first SLIM accredited corporate learning center

Metropolitan Group tied up with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing becoming Sri Lanka’s first corporate to be accredited by SLIM to conduct its professional courses externally.

The memorandum of understanding was signed recently between the SLIM and Metropolitan Group.

Metropolitan’s educational arm, the Metro Academy will conduct the preliminary certificate in marketing course shortly.

“Metropolitan always believed in a learning culture. We have taken every effort to endorse and facilitate learning amongst our employees, and that was the reason for the birth of Metro Academy. We will shortly extend these courses to the public through the tie up with SLIM,” Group Human Resources division General Manager Dulani Nissanka said.

The third batch of students graduated recently from the Metro Academy, the Metropolitan Group’s in-house education and knowledge arm. The Metro Academy which conducts courses in several streams, include marketing and sales courses conducted jointly with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing.

She added that the Academy hopes to expand its tie-up with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing in offering advanced marketing and sales related study courses and that several other professional bodies and institutes will also be partnering with the Metro Academy in time to come.

Currently, the Academy offers programs in Certificates in Selling, Advanced Certificates in Selling, the Foundation Course in Communication for Business and the Certificate Course in Marketing Management.

Metro Academy was set up three years ago to enhance and develop the skills and knowledge of Metropolitan Group employees. Today, the Academy has rapidly expanded to offer language development and will also be launching a series of customer relationship management programs as well.

Thames College introduces hospitality, tourism management courses

Having recognized the long-felt need of the tourism industry for the first time in Sri Lanka, Thames College, in association with CTH - UK (Confederation of Tourism and Hospitality) has introduced a tailor-made Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Thames College (www.thamescollege.lk) introduced this programme with an official launching ceremony held at Jubilee Room of Galle Face Hotel on Saturday with the participation of eminent figures in the industry. Thames College also boasts of overwhelming responses even before the launch owing to very attractive and magnanimous bursaries offered to students.

The greatest advantage of CTH Post Graduate Diploma is that students can either start with industry related qualifications or three years work experience in supervisory or managerial level in the industry.

This will pave the way for students to be MSc or MBA qualified within a shortest period of 6-8 months after the completion of PGD.

Further, all assessments are done through assignments passing up conventional exams in order to give students hands-on experience, thus making them more practical and market-ready. CTH is one of the UK’s leading professional membership and awarding body for qualifications in the fastest growing commercial sector worldwide.

Over the last 28 years CTH has focused on developing and adding value to careers in the industry, globally. CTH was established in 1982 as a specialist professional body in the UK to focus on the training needs of new entrants to the hospitality and tourism industries, and now has accredited colleges worldwide delivering sought after CTH qualification.

CTH provides a ladder of progression in Tourism, Travel and Hospitality qualifications at Certificate, Diploma, Advanced Diploma, Graduate Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma level, and its qualifications provide appropriate academic preparation for students to apply for entry onto their final year degree programmes and Masters Top up programs. This route delivers well-trained and qualified employees and leaders for the sector.

CTH ensures its quality through its approved status with Ofqual and the QCA’s UK accredited qualification framework. All qualifications are developed in conjunction with the UK Sector Skills Council, People 1st, to ensure relevance, value and quality. This approach guarantees that CTH qualifications are valued by employers throughout the world.

CTH is a member of the Federation of Awarding Bodies. Its management qualifications are endorsed by over 25 British and international universities. CTH work with British Accreditation Council (BAC), British Council and Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC) accredited colleges in the UK and Ireland and with its support, CTH expects centres to achieve suitable quality thresholds to enable effective training on its programmes.

CTH also has strong links with industry, with effective relationships and high profile endorsements from organisations such as Virgin Atlantic, GTMC, Star Alliance, Marriot Hotels Caribbean, Radisson Edwardian, Sheraton Hotels, Mantis Collection, Institute of Hospitality, Adair Leadership, The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and many others.

ACCA qualifications in demand in challenging times

The demand for a professional accountancy qualification has remained high during tough economic times as the results from the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) examinations in June reveal that 196,000 students sat papers, with more than 6,000 taking a major step towards membership of the global body for professional accountants.

Candidates around the world took more than 373,000 papers, with 6,294 students successfully completing their final ACCA examinations. A further 2,978 students completed the Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) exams.

At the Fundamentals level, pass rates were particularly pleasing for the tax and law papers. Students continue to find papers F5 Performance Management, F7 Financial Reporting and F8 Audit and Assurance challenging.

At the Professional level the pass rate remains strong in paper P1, Governance, Risk and Ethics which tests students’ professional judgement. This is the first session to place a greater emphasis on risk assessment and risk management within the exam.

ACCA executive director - learning and products, Clare Minchington, said: “We congratulate those who have succeeded in their exams - and we are delighted to see that more than 6,000 have completed their examinations, having been able to demonstrate the financial knowledge and professional skills which are needed by organisations in challenging economic conditions. We look forward to welcoming them to ACCA membership on completion of their practical experience requirements. We also congratulate the students who have completed their CAT exams at this session.

“We look forward to examining our new suite of awards, Foundations in Accountancy which replaces the existing CAT qualification from December 2011. Foundations in Accountancy offers students a choice of awards at different levels and the availability of more computer-based exams than are currently available. This is the first stage of the innovative e-assessment programme being developed by ACCA which will lead to all its examinations, across all levels, being offered online.

“In addition to offering greater flexibility, our new e-assessment model will enable us to test students’ knowledge and skills in a way which more accurately reflects real-life workplace scenarios and activities and which meet employers’ needs, creating the e-professional.”

The first papers will transition to the new system in 2012 with all papers being phased over the next few years. ACCA already offers Computer Based Exams (CBE), first introducing them in 1998, and has since implemented e-paper production and e-marking of its scripts.