New career guidance certificate course to begin at Vavuniya University

According to Janaki Theravaruban, the University of Vavuniya’s Career Guidance Director, the university is planning to create a career guidance certificate course that will begin next year.

The course will be held from January to February and numerous workshops and seminars will be continuously conducted as well. The certificate programme will provide content that will guide students into making the right career choice, and it will be open for external students as well, the director said.

Ms Theravaruban said the programme’s objective is to enable students to think in a wide scope and promote their employability among employers.

The Director also said the programme would encourage growth of interviewing skills and would allow students to become employable graduates and who would fulfil the needs of society.

She said the university had also created an effective internship programme which would allow students to be career ready.

At the end of the course, the students would be able to gain an internship and training after letters had been provided by the Vavuniya University, she said.

Regarding the classes, the director said the career guidance employees within the university would act as lecturers, while the lectures would take place every weekend at the university’s lecture halls.

At the moment, the university is holding seminars and workshops every month continuously on the subject of career guidance.

The university was also planning to have a career fair in another three months, where business organisations could have their own stalls and view the resumes of the students.

In terms of internships, the director said the university was collaborating with the business sector for the purpose of creating internships for undergraduate students.

Ms Theravaruban also said the career guidance unit has several future plans. Such plans would allow for the creation of a job bank for graduates, the creation of career guidance course material and modules and the setting up of various short term certificate and diploma courses. The future plans would also require students to reflect on their ambitions, interests, strengths and capacities in their career and personal lives.

Such future plans would also provide career guidance to students so as to enable them to shift effectively to the wider working world, the director said.