Career and Skills Summit by British Council 

Taking place on the 5th and 6th of March at SLECC, we spoke to Country Director of British Council Mr. Keith Davies about the summit. 

Tell us a little about the Careers and Skills Summit. 

This is the most exciting thing that’s happening this weekend and we’ve been planning it for about 7 to 8 months.It’s a new innovation, something we’ve never done before.  It takes the idea of a career fair and add on much more to it.. We are trying to target British graduates and those with British Qualifications and British experience and we are getting them all together with representatives of main industry’s in Sri Lanka. We have some of the big companies representing like Hirdaramani, Dialog, Unilever among others and they would be interviewing people for potential. People have already registered online but there should be some walk in slots available as well and if there aren’t, you can also drop off your CV in them box and they’ll follow up later. 

What brought on this concept? 

Well a lot of feedback we were getting and a lot of research said that employability is the hottest topic. A lot of students were saying ‘whats the point of me spent all this money on a degree when I can’t get a job, its hard to get a job’ while the employers are saying ‘we are desperate to find people and we got all these people graduating but they are not what we want in terms of work experience’. We identified that this is a problem across the world; producing work ready graduates and we came up with the idea of a summit. 

You also have something planned in the ‘Skills’ aspect. What are they? 

We have psychometric testing where you can go have full test done which will help you decide what your correct career should be. It’s a very useful tool in defining your career choices. Then there are talks by industry leaders, some very interesting talks by directors and chief executive officers. giving an idea what its like to work in the industry. We also have the skills workshop where will still have some seats available. Here we will cover some of the essential skills needed to work in todays world like entrepreneurship, social enterprise, how to write your own CV, leadership, interview technique and a whole range of soft skills that will prepare you for a life in work. 

Is it only for UK qualification holders? 

It's primarily for them but that can include a professional qualification like CIM, CIMA. People with AL UK qualifications are welcome as well though the job interviews are for the graduates. 

What are some of the general qualities looked for by employers other than qualifications? 

Skill and communication in english language. If you can only speak in Sinhala or Tamil then you're restricted to working here in Sri Lanka but once you get an english qualification you can work in PR, across the communities and even in different countries so its perhaps the single thing that can help you. Then there’s  also entrepreneurship, hard work, discipline, people who fit in, people who get things done and work on their own initiative with good financial skills and ICT knowledge is also very important. 

What else can people expect? 

There will be stalls for the main 10 industry partners who will ne conducting interviews,  a lounge where the skills workshops are coducted, a separate booth for psychometric and language testing. Plus a lot of fun things like refreshments and a Shakespeare photo booth! For more details go to our website www.britishcouncil.lk, click on ‘Opportunities’ on the homepage. 

By Panchali Illankoon
Photographs by Waruna Wanniarachchi