“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Organized annually with the sole aim of empowering the youth and molding Sri Lanka’s future, “Future Challenge” is the signature professional development project of the Rotaract Club of Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. With a history dating back to the birth of RACFOSUOC, this project stands out as it was known to be one of the major reasons for the establishment of our club as well.
Going beyond and redefining everyday “career fairs”, Future Challenge involves partnering up with the leaders of the Sri Lankan workforce, featuring companies and chains both local and international.
The Faculty of Science, University of Colombo is well known not only in Sri Lanka but globally for producing young, bright-minded scientists and industrialists specialized in a plethora of fields of Science such as Biochemistry & Molecular biology, Industrial Statistics & Mathematical Finance, Chemistry, Physics, Immunology, Pharmacology, Plant & Environmental Sciences, Nuclear Science, Statistics & Computer Sciences, etc.
And for the graduates and undergraduates of the faculty, the project comes as a golden opportunity to meet the professionals of these fields directly and most importantly to sit for face-to-face interviews that open the door to scholarships, internships as well as permanent job roles.
In order to prepare the candidates for what is many of their first job interviews, our club also organizes a subsidiary project called “Werkstatt” which too takes place annually prior to the interviews at Future Challenge. Usually spanning 1-2 weeks and 5-10 sessions prior to the big day, Werkstatt goes beyond mere professional development workshops and goes that extra mile in making sure that the candidates are well aware of the nitty-gritty’s expected and are all set to make that lasting first impression.
Year after year, Future Challenge has grown from what was a small scale initiative to not only a massive operation but also an award-winning project having won awards in the title of “The Most Outstanding Professional Development Project of the Year” at the Rotaract District Conferences of recent years.
With the advent of the current pandemic situation, organizing this year’s event posed many challenges. But with the unwavering dedication of our Exco and board of the club with its members, 4 sessions of Werkstatt 2021 conducted by 4 experienced professionals via Zoom which gained feedback and a reach beyond expectation and Future Challenge 2021 conducted semi virtually with companies joining via virtual platforms and candidates being coordinated at the university premises along with abidance of all the public health protocols was concluded successfully on the 21st of April 2021 with the participation of over 200 candidates and 14 leading companies.
As an active club with a fast-growing member base, we at RACFOSUOC hope to develop and carry the name of Future Challenge to greater heights while fulfilling its part in inspiring and helping mold the future of Sri Lanka for a better nation.
By Rtr. Tharini Cabraal
Oshadi Tennakoon says
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