An extension of ‘The Final Step’ – the popular series of soft skills workshops conducted at local universities over the past 14 years benefiting over 5,000 university students, ‘Step up to Careers’ conducted by the John Keells Foundation, is a one-day program comprising a panel discussion, training workshops and a career fair open to state and non-state university undergraduates to enhance their employability.
The inaugural program conducted in partnership with the University Grants Commission and supported by youth organisations AISEC, Rotaract and Leo Clubs, was held at the Defence Services College auditorium recently. Over 110 students representing 27 universities were present.
Head of Operations of John Keells Foundation, Carmeline Jayasuriya said, “Step Up has been designed to equip youngsters with tools to develop a winning personality, improve their leadership and team skills, vision, goal setting, problem solving and understand the importance of the right attitudes and values.”
The workshop commenced with a panel discussion covering employer expectations of a graduate employee including skills, competencies, attitudes and values. The panellists comprised business leaders President, Group HR, Legal and Secretarial, Group Sustainability and CSR, Dilani Alagaratnam; Vice President, Head of Brand Marketing, Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts, CEO, Cinnamon Life Mall, Dileep Mudadeniya; CEO, Abans Sriyan de S. Wijeyeratne; Director, Film Island, Sandya Salgado; Assistant Vice President, Head of John Keells X (Corporate Startup Accelerator), Wishanth Wijesinghe and an introductory address by Executive Vice President, Sector Head, Property Group, JKG, Nayana Mawilmada.
The program concluded with a career fair, where students were able to network with HR personnel from 17 companies of the John Keells Group representing seven industry groups.