SLIIT provide students with environment to learn from industry leaders

SLIIT, the nation’s premier higher education institute understands the urgent need towards real-world, education and utilising close ties with industry professionals to help students be job-ready.

SLIIT Visiting Lecturer, Madhawa Herath has over a decade of teaching and industry experience bridging the vital gap between academia and industry. Presently reading for his doctorate in field operations management, he has had the distinction of being one of the youngest managers in the corporate telecommunications industry.

With practical experience and learning in key areas such as Project Management, Electrical & Electronics Telecommunication, Technology Management, Corporate Strategy Leadership and Human Capital, Operation Management etc., he continuously draws on his own competencies to help his students.

As a well-respected expert in the telecom industry, he ensures his experience enhances his lecturing role. Herath said, “While I share my corporate experience with the students and make them jobready I also explain industry expectations and what is required from a graduate.”

Being a young lecturer, Herath strives to try to explain the subject matter to his students in ways they can easily understand and relate to with examples and analogies. “Industry is changing very rapidly and with it are the expectations, requirements and market trends. I show them how to identify problems in the environment, how to make a feasible solution to a problem and how they can market it, and identify the market gaps,” he said.

In addition to his industry role, Herath highlights the importance of entrepreneurship among graduates.He said, “Today in Sri Lanka we have a huge vacuum of entrepreneurs. I want to help our graduates become entrepreneurs – to make them employers rather than employees. At SLIIT we discuss an engineer’s role in a commercial setting. How the engineer can answer real world problems using his learning.”

He acknowledges SLIIT’s incubator programme plays an active role towards this. “Through SLIIT’s incubator I always share my experience and tacit knowledge with my students to help them understand market requirements and come up with necessary solutions. Also I explain market barriers and support their drive to becoming employers and easily engage with them and encourage them to create their own businesses,” he added.

Herath’s role extends from lecturer to facilitator, he noted, “They can learn a lot from the industry and my role as a facilitator helps them become up to date on the industry. Importantly, I am a bridging tool between the industry and academia on what the market trends are and how itcan impact their lives.”

Herath emphasises SLIIT’s innovative changes in lecturing methodologies have also contributed vastly towards student learning. “The evolvement of digital communication and mobility has made a huge