Enhances the Soft Skills of Sri Lankan Youth
SLIIT Business School, which is currently led by Professor Samantha Thelijjagoda, has convinced society, the requirement of improving soft skills of the students in this modern technology enabled world. As per his comment on soft skills, students need to improve their people skills and self-management skills to be not only an effective learner but also a good employee. The programme launched by the SLIIT Business School includes several innovative techniques for effective learning. In this background, its ground - breaking methodology to introduce smart ways of managing information is rapidly gaining popularity in the local schools as he has been conducting a series of workshops for students in various districts.
“This new technique uses modern technology to disseminate knowledge which intentionally saves time and effort and creates an avid interest for learning within students” stated Prof. Thelijjagoda who is passionate about sharing his knowledge to bring about an era of educated children who are able to use their analytical skills to make learning more effective and long lasting.
One of these techniques includes a digital tool, which is done through the support of mind mapping. It ideally replaces the need to write short notes or long paragraphs. Using pictures, colours, graphs, charts and more, one can summarize the lesson into a pictorial source of study which is easily absorbed by the brain. This technique is considered resourceful for preparation of examinations and organizing various events at schools, universities and other institutions. “We as humans tend to forget the minor details when organizing events but this tool covers all aspects in an easy format ensuring success at any given time,” stated the Professor who is keen to empower the student population of this land with this vital piece of information which is pivotal to their learning as students are fed with an excessive load of textual information which has to be committed to memory on a daily basis and this can cause the coping mechanism to feel stressed. Thus, the mindmapping tool serves as a relief to the challenges faced by students in remembering facts and figures.
Elaborating on event organizing or aptly called event management, students who have the additional task of organizing school events can create picture resources to assigning tasks, creating schedules and more through the mapping concept which is making rapid strides in the west. Companies use this tool extensively as it has been proven effective in all areas of knowledge gathering.
As part of our CSR effort at SLIIT, we conduct workshops and visit rural as well as renowned schools in the island with the sole intention of inculcating this forward-thinking technique to the students who will benefit from its enterprising effects. They can maximize its potential in making their lives more organized at school, home and inevitably their careers. This will be additionally beneficial to the development of their soft skills, leadership qualities, people and organizational skills, decision making process, tolerance and stress management and more. In addition we provide the students with practical knowledge in facing a job interview and more which is not embedded in the regular curriculum. These sessions are interspersed with quizzes and what is termed SMART thoughts which are created to enhance productivity in an individual.
Further, access to these mapping tools – a graphical presentation of information or a graphical user interface is freely available online and can be downloaded via applications. This also attracts the various types of learners divided into groups such as visual aid learners, auditory learners and kinaesthetic learners.
To introduce the importance of soft skills to the school level, SLIIT Business School recently launched a new concept called “Soft Skills Hub” concept which supports to enhance the self-management skills and people skills within school kids and undergraduates of the institute. Through this initiative, SLIIT has also granted the teachers to form soft skills clubs in their schools which will ensure sustainability and further learning and development within the students who are eager to use modern technology to expand their learning capacity which will inevitably cause them to gain victory in every facet of life. SLIIT’s efforts have been instrumental in making that vision a reality. SLIIT Business School has been conducting the Soft Skills Interschool quiz and workshop to uplift soft skills of Sri Lankan school children for 6 consecutive years. Even though these Soft Skills are becoming increasingly hard skills of today’s work force, the school curriculum has ignored this vital aspect and this Soft Skills programme spearheaded by SLIIT helps to bridge the gap.
The SLIIT Business School aims to fulfil the dynamic nature of current businesses which requires visionary leaders, strategic managers, innovative entrepreneurs and the power of integrated technologies to perform successfully. This is done though the comprehensive curriculum which enables students to obtain up-to-date knowledge, dependable competence, marketable skills and creative ideas. Further these core disciplines are effectively taught by a team of erudite scholars who are part of SLIIT’s enterprising work force, who are intentional in honing the innate abilities of the students in order to produce world class graduates sought after by today’s businesses.