SLIIT conducts HR forum with industry experts for 5th consecutive year

Tuesday, 16 June 2015 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

For over a decade, SLIIT, the premier degree awarding institute, has provided students with a broad range of academic and industry opportunities.

For the 5th consecutive year, SLIIT organised the annual HR forum together with its industry partners; IFS, Univel, ZILLIONe, Volume, Vocanic, Virtusa, SimCentric Technologies, Tetran, B Connected, MIT, Zone 24x7, Ever Jobs, 99x Technology, Proavos, SLT, MAS, Metatechno Lanka, Logiwiz, Jagath Robotics, Mobitel, Jobs4u, Ceylon Biscuits Ltd., Affno, Rezgateway and Pearson.

Along with the industry partners were deans Dr. Malitha Wijesundara (Dean – Faculty of Computing), Prof. Chandana Perera (Dean – Faculty of Business), Prof. Saman Thilakasiri (Dean – Faculty of Engineering), Dr. Chulantha Kulasekere (Dean – Graduate Studies), Dr. Mahesha Kapurubandara (Dean – International) and Heads of Departments Dr. Pradeepa Samarasinghe (Head of IT – Faculty of Computing), Dr. Kosala Yapa Bandara (Head of Software Engineering – Faculty of Computing) and the Career Guidance Unit.

“The aim of this forum is to understand the progress of SLIIT graduates in the industry and get advice from experts so that we can mould our students to suit industry requirements,” noted Dr. Kapurubandara.

Following this, each faculty – Computing, Engineering and Business – explained the courses it offers, program outcomes, foreign partnerships and staff strength.

Commenting on student performance Thusitha Kularatne, General Manager at Zillione Systems Solutions, said, “We have been recruiting students from SLIIT for the past three to four years. Over the years, we have seen a drastic improvement in the quality of graduates from SLIIT. I applaud the hard work and strategies put in by the staff at SLIIT. With the in-house internship program, we have also seen an improvement in soft skills and this encourages us to hire more students from SLIIT.”

“It is our responsibility to have annual forums of this stature, to not only strengthen relationships between the various industries and 10-06 SLIIT but also for us to understand the industry expectations. Our goal is to produce graduates with good subject knowledge, skills and attitude,” noted Dr. Kapurubandara.

Hashani Ruberu, representing SimCentric, noted: “We currently have around 15 graduates from SLIIT. The quality of work and the subject knowledge they have are commendable. We will indeed look at hiring more students in the future.” Incorporating the feedback from the HR forum last year, the ‘soft skills for life’ workshop has been made mandatory for all students. Workshops on CV writing and interview etiquette, along with mock interviews and in-house internship programs have also been introduced recently.