Phase 1 of “Future Challenge”, the signature project under the avenue of Professional Development of the Rotaract Club of Faculty of Science, University of Colombo.
“WerkStatt” was a professional development program on Employability and careers, organized by the Rotaract Club of Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. It’s affiliated to “Future Challenge 2019”, the job fair of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, which is organized by our Rotaract club partnered up with the Career Guidance Unit of the faculty. The motive of “WerkStatt” was to give guidance on how to start your professional career and what to do to improve ones’ employability. Although it was open to anyone who was interested, we mainly focused on getting the students of the faculty who were interested in this matter. The workshop was a series of speeches presented by a renowned and experienced set of speakers.
Amidst the thundering storm, the FGS Auditorium was filled with an eager crowd, awaiting the first speaker. As the first speaker for the evening, Mr. Sunesh Rodrigo, the deputy general manager of MAS Holdings kicked off the program with his eye-opening speech on how ones’ digital footprint would affect his or her employability. He emphasized on the fact that the modern employer tends to follow up on potential employee’s social media accounts, online profiles etc. He also gave a small introduction to “LinkedIn” and the importance of it. It was a very interactive, interesting speech, followed by many positive comments given to us from the audience.
The next speaker was Dr. Lalith Liyanage, the CEO of Lanka Logistics and Technologies Ltd who is an exceptional character with many academic and professional qualifications under his profile. Dr. Liyanage made a brief introduction about himself and then moved on to his topic of “Change of Industrial Dynamics and Employer Expectations” where he highlighted the current employer expectations and the notifiable variations observed in the corporate industry. He also emphasized the key requirements that are expected from employees where he enlightened everyone present with a list of attributes that would define an ‘Ideal’ employee. This was undoubtedly a great piece of advice for all the future employees that were present that day.
Mr. Malaka Rubasinghe who was our third speaker for the night is a renowned CIMA lecturer. Not only as a CIMA lecturer, Mr. Malaka is also famous as an exemplary entrepreneur who managed to grow his family business into a flourishing vocation that has been subjected to praise and recognition. Hence under his topic of “Life of an Entrepreneur”, Mr. Malaka shared his invaluable experiences and priceless efforts in connection with his journey of success as a self-motivated entrepreneur. He also made an emphasis on the hardships that an entrepreneur will have to undergo for his or her cause, but equally stressed on the importance of dedication, commitment and determination that will be required to overcome such issues. Likewise, a collection of valuable advice and experiences were left with those who were present at the workshop.
The final pair of speakers were Dr. Sankha Poruthotage and Ms. Devini Senaratna, the CEO and The Chief Data Scientist of Linear Squared, who conducted an interactive session regarding the opportunities in the field of Data Science. It was a great opportunity for those who were interested in this field as they were able to raise their concerns to which prompt answers were given by the guest speakers. The interactive discussion covered many areas related to Data Science and it also elaborated on the corporate expectations and requirements of Data Scientists. Furthermore, details related to job opportunities in the respective field were also discussed.
Thereby, Werkstatt came to a successful ending with almost everyone who participated gaining key knowledge and information regarding employer expectations and current job requirements that may become beneficial for their respective career prospects. Furthermore, we as a team are immensely grateful to our guest speakers for sharing their corporate insight with the participants of the workshop.
-Written by Rtr. Mindula Perera & Rtr. Kaushan Fernando –
Leave a Reply