Maliyadeva Girls’ College wins SLIIT’s soft skills competition

The SLIIT Business School recently conducted the Grand Finale of Soft Skills+ 2018, its annual CSR programme that aims to uplift the soft skills of school children at the main auditorium in the SLIIT, Malabe Campus. Chief Guest of the occasion was Ruwan Edirisinghe, Chairman of RN Group of Companies.

SLIIT Business School conducts this programme annually as a means of improving and uplifting the analytical, problem solving and communication skills of secondary school students, the organisation said in a media release.

Secondary schools mainly tend to concentrate on the imparting of knowledge, on analysis, and synthesis. Although these are valuable aspects, soft skills such as team work, problem solving, creativity and thinking "out of the box" are just as important in order to achieve success, these are missing in the curricula. This is one of the main reasons why SLIIT Business School initiated this programme in 2012.

Soft Skills+ 2018 was the 6th programme conducted by SLIIT Business School. This year seven preliminary rounds were conducted in Malabe, Matara, Kurunegala, Ratnapura, Jaffna, Kandy and Bandarawela. From each of these preliminary rounds, teams were selected to compete in the Grand Finale. This island- wide, inter school quiz competition and soft skills workshop attracted over 700 students from over 80 schools island-wide, the release said.

The programme consisted of three segments. The Biz Quiz, where the students were tested for their knowledge on areas such as international trade, business in Lanka and business around the world. The top scoring teams of this segment got qualified to the Grand Finale of the event. The programme also ensured that every participant receives a benefit. The second segment where a workshop was conducted on Mind Mapping focused on the improvement of soft skills of participants. This workshop offered the participants a chance to learn and draw mind maps which enhanced their skills of creativity, team work and also how to manage time. Each team qualified to the Grand Finale submitted a creative mind map that was exhibited in a poster presentation and the best three mind maps were awarded prizes. The third segment was a visit to a manufacturing plant organised by the SLIIT Business School in partnership with MAS Holdings and Hirdaramani Group.

Twenty four schools contested at the Grand Finale for the championship of soft skills+ 2018. After an exciting and also entertaining competition Maliyadeva Girls' College, Kurunegala emerged as the champions of 2018. The winning school was awarded with a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and a trophy while Lyceum International School, Wattala who emerged as the 1st runners-up and Rathnawali Balika Vidyalaya, Gampaha who emerged as the 2nd runners- up were also awarded cash prizes of Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 20,000 respectively.