Having an academic background is well and good but to make it as a successful businessman or woman, you will need skills that can’t be obtained through textbooks.
With this in mind a soft skills workshop was organised by John Keells, as part of their CSR project, in collaboration with the Career Guidance Unit of the University of Moratuwa for the students of the University.
Titled ‘The Final Step’, the five day workshop commenced this week with a panel discussion on Employer Expectations which followed by a question and answer session. The students found the discussion quite helpful.
“This sort of discussion prepares you before you enter the corporate world. It gives you an idea of what your employers expect of you and you can design your game plan according to that.
It was very helpful. I was under the impression that it was more for the management students but after attending the discussion I realised it was about the transformation from engineering to management,” says Rasika de Silva, a student of the Textile Department.
Ashika Nuwan, also of the Textile Department shared similar sentiments saying, “it was very useful for undergraduates. Now we have a better idea of what employers expect of us and in what areas we need to improve. We also have an idea of how to move if need be into a management field from an engineering background.”
The panel of speakers included well known names in the private sector such Faizal Salieh, Dilani Alagaratnam, Gehan de Silva Wijeyratne, Sandya Salgado. The discussions were moderated by Dr. Uditha Liyanage.
The aim of the workshop was to enhance the employability of graduates in the private sector as well as to create an awareness of emplo Apart from employer expectations the students were addressed by some of the leading business professionals in the country on subjects such as team building and leadership skills. Other workshops included interactive presentation on adapting to the corporate environment, personality development and confidence building, personal grooming and corporate hospitality.
The speakers on the following days were Ronnie Peiris, Sharmini Ratwatte, Dr. Harsha Alles, Rohantha Athukorala, Prasanna Perera, Ajith Bopitiya and Nayana Karunaratne.
“The response from the students has been very positive,” said Carmeline Jayasuriya, Manager of the Social Responsibility Foundation of John Keells. She went on to say that a lot of research was done before planning the workshop in order to inform the students about subject that students wanted to know more about, adding “We started conducting the workshops in 2006. The University of Kelaniya requested that we organise the workshop. Over the years the response from the students has been overwhelming.” |
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