On August 2nd, 2024, the Career Guidance Unit of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, successfully hosted the inaugural Career Fair 2024 – “Unlock Your Potential to Get Hired!" from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM at the Statistics Department building. This event was a collaborative effort with the University of Colombo’s Leo Club, Rotaract Club, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club, Student’s Union of the Science Faculty, and AIESEC.

The purpose of the career fair was to provide students with a platform to connect with potential employers, gain insights into the job market, and provide companies with the opportunity to recruit new talent. Ten leading companies in the industrial sector participated in the fair, including MAS Holdings, Parallax Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, Dialog Network Services (Pvt) Ltd, Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, Prima Management Services (Pvt) Ltd, Brandix Lanka Ltd, Hemas Consumer Brands, Softlogic Life Insurance PLC, Concord Footwear (Pvt) Ltd and SmithKline Beecham (Pvt) Ltd.

With over 160 students in attendance, the career fair was a remarkable success. Over 40% of the students who participated were either recruited for company positions or shortlisted for second interviews, marking a significant success in achieving the fair’s objectives. This accomplishment sets the stage for future career fairs and mentoring workshops, further empowering our students to excel in their careers and become strong candidates in the industrial world.

Considering the feedback from both students and companies, we will work to host even more refined and impactful career fairs along with our series of mentoring workshops to better equip University of Colombo students, ensuring they are well-prepared and fully equipped to make a strong impact in the industry.

On June 29, 2024, the Career Guidance Unit of the University of Colombo, Faculty of Science, successfully hosted the Mentoring Workshop, marking the inaugural step of the Career Fair 2024 – “Unlock Your Potential to Get Hired!" The three-hour event was a collaborative effort with the University of Colombo’s Leo Club, Rotaract Club, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club, and AIESEC.

Aimed at enhancing students’ potential and assisting them in securing their dream jobs, the workshop began with an introductory session to illuminate students on the do’s and don’ts in an interview. This was followed by a series of mock interviews for over 100 undergraduates from the University of Colombo, held at the Statistics Department building. These interviews were conducted by 28 distinguished resource persons, including leading industry experts such as senior executives and managers from pioneering companies, as well as esteemed lecturers from the Faculty of Science.

Students were provided with invaluable feedback on their interview skills and CVs, empowering them to reach their full potential. Additionally offering a unique opportunity for students to gain practical experience, build confidence, and receive personalized advice from industry professionals. Students left the premises better armed to navigate the competitive job market, improve their employability, and increase their chances of securing their dream jobs. The event was a resounding success, highlighting the importance of such initiatives in fostering professional growth and development.

The Unilever purpose workshop, powered by Unilever Sri Lanka, FEEL LANKA, and the Career Guidance Unit of Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, was successfully held on 18th June 2022, from 8.00 am to 12.00 pm. Four eminent speakers served as resource person in the workshop and shared their insights with enthusiastic young undergraduates who explore the ultimate graduate learning outcomes and career paths.

META+ is a joint project organized by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club under Career Guidance Unit of Faculty of Science and the Leo of Club of Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, which comprises series of webinars and a competition on Digital media marketing in order to give a broad knowledge about the subject to undergraduates of Sri Lankan Universities, and to develop skills required for implementing marketing strategies all the while dealing with the challenges. This event saw over 200+ registered participants.

The project was kick started with the airing of the first workshop on “Introduction to digital media marketing” held on the 4^th December at 7.30pm and onwards via Zoom. The resource person for this workshop was Mr. Shawn Moses (Lead digital strategist at Creative-hub and former Lead digital strategist IKON). This workshop enrolled over 100 participants.

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Organizations having much better skilled and creative employees can easily avoid wasteful investment to improve efficiency and performance of the organizations. However, specific organizations such as tertiary education institutes i.e. universities require a set of employees that are dynamic and able to meet the timely demands. Academic staff of the most universities are provided with training and workshops periodically in order to reach their highest potential in their respective areas of work. Therefore, this is a series of workshops organized by the Career Guidance Unit and the Staff Training Subcommittee of the Faculty to develop skills of the non-academic members (Management Assistants, Laboratory Assistants and technicians, Clerical staff) of the faculty.

The objective of this program is to enhance the English language and computer literacy among non-academic staff and to enhance the soft skills of non-academic staff members.

Evaluation of the program will be done by using questionnaires to evaluate each session conducted and to gain ideas for further improvement. We believe conducting intermittent training programs for the different groups of university non-academic employees can enhance the employee’s performance as well as the institutional performance.

A webinar “To be an Academic" organized by the Academic Mentoring Program of Faculty of Science (under the Career Guidance Unit of the Faculty) was held on 12^th August 2021 from 4.00 to 5.30 pm. It was conducted by Professor Emeritus Sarath W. Kotagama to inspire the young academics who are in their early career stage. Professor Kotagama shared about his journey as an academic and a researcher including many experiences throughout his career.

After spending nearly 3-4 years at university the next step of many graduates is to pursue their higher studies, either by enrolling in a Masters or a PhD program. But getting to know the correct pathway to approach such programs have been an issue to many of them. Thus, catering the need of many graduates, Career Guidance Unit of Faculty of Science organized “Road to Graduate Programs” webinar on 27^th September 2021 via Zoom platform. The session witnessed more than 100 participants of all the years, who follow different streams.

The webinar was conducted by Dr. Joshua Coco, the Assistant Dean and Executive Director of Advancement, Outreach, Recruitment, Enrollment, Advancement, and Marketing at Rosenstiel school of Marine and Atmospheric science, University of Miami, USA.

The virtual program to explore the importance of women in leadership, develop a sense of connection and create a long-lasting community was held from 17 – 18^th June 2021. The program was continued with workshops and informative virtual sessions throughout July.

For more information please visit – https://www.mckinsey.com/next-generation-women-leaders/asia-pacific

The Inaugural meeting of the Academic Mentoring Programme of the Faculty of Science was held successfully on April 19, 2021, with the participation of the Vice-Chancellor, University of Colombo, Dean, Faculty of Science and the members of the Faculty Mentoring Committee, and all the registered mentees and mentors under the programme.

The speakers of the meeting included Prof Chamari Hettiarachchi, Co-Director, Career Guidance Unit, Prof. Erandathie Lokupitiya, Coordinator, Academic Mentoring Programme, Snr. Prof Chandrika Wijeyaratne, Vice Chancellor of University of Colombo, Snr. Prof Upul Sonnadra, Dean, Faculty of Science, and Snr. Prof Preethi Udagama, Advisor to the Academic Mentoring Programme.

A virtual workshop was held for the students of the Faculty of Science who are planning to pursue their higher education, on Ph.D., MS, and Master of Professional Science degrees from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences on 15^th April 2021 from 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm. This workshop was conducted by Dr. Josh Coco from the University of Miami, USA.

Personality Development Programme of Career Guidance Unit

The orientation programme for the freshers was held on 9^th April 2021 from 9.00 am to 12.00 pm via zoom (Live screen from the Dean’s office Boardroom) with the participation of Co – Directors, Alumnae and Corporate partners.

The introductory virtual workshop for the mentors of Academic Mentoring Program was held on 25^th of March from 2.15 pm – 4.30 pm via zoom. Professor Erandathie Lokupitiya introduced the program with an overall description including the key objectives and the expected outcomes. Professor Shervanthi Homer-Vanniasinkam, Consultant Vascular Surgeon, Leeds General Infirmary and Professor Pavithra Kailasapathy from Department of Human Resources Management, Faculty of Management and Finance, were invited for the event as guest speakers, and gave valuable insights for the program. The session ended with a panel discussion with Professor Shervanthi Homer-Vanniasinkam, Professor Pavithra Kailasapathy, Senior Professor Preethi Udagama, and Professor Erandathie Lokupitiya as the panelists. All the mentors, members of the Academic Mentoring Committee, and all the other senior faculty members were invited to participate in this introductory workshop.

INSPIRA 2020 organized by the Career Guidance Unit, FOS/ UOC and funded by the AHEAD budget, was successfully held on 15^th January 2021. The main aim of the workshop was to inspire and motivate the young undergraduates who are about to enter the corporate world and make their own career decisions to find extraordinary career paths for themselves. Forty-one students who followed Service Learning and Internship programs under CGU participated in the workshop. Mr. Ashane Wadasinghe (Wealth Planner, AIA Sri Lanka) and Ms.Ludmila Bopitiya (Founder, Ruby & Violet Studio) were the resource personals this year. Strict measures were enforced to ensure health and safety of the participants.