ANC Students Shine at Co-op Career Fair
The career fair organised by ANC School of Business under the Northwood University Degree Programme concluded last week giving many undergraduate students the opportunity to get work placements in leading companies in the corporate world. At the career fair, students met Chief Executive Officers and Heads of Human Resource of recognised local and international companies, who shared their experience and knowledge in a common forum. “It is a very good chance for students to meet people from the corporate world. It is even more wonderful to have a lot of local as well as global companies at the career fair,” noted DinukaMalith from the US/Canadian Transfer Program. The students zigzagged between the interview desks meeting representatives of companies including major recruiters Virtusa, Orient Insurance Company, Amana Takaful Life Limited, ShipXpressInc, Entrust Limited, Jaykay Marketing Services (Ptv) Ltd, eChannelling PLC etc. Some students secured work placements covering a period of 6 to 12 months.
The visionary behind the programme, ANC CEO Dr. PunarjeevaKarunanayake said, “It is a concept that many US business universities have. This is fundamentally different from internships. The difference is that the companies have to pay the students – and students will get contracts with companies up to one year and they will work from 9am to 5pm as full time employees. Our students have been the best and they have all the skills any CEO or HR manager is looking for. Our students’ starting salary is high compared to the others upon graduation.”
The ANC Co-op Program, launched this year, is the most expansive cooperative program in the country and is Sri Lanka’s first ever-cooperative program helping students gain work experience to enhance their résumé. “The applicants, we see in general are more technical oriented but lack experience and exposure. This programme is the best way to solve that by giving these students a chance to get work experience,” commented Reyaz Jeffry, CEO – Amana Takaful Life Limited. The vision behind the programme is to give ANC students the edge over other graduates as they enter the job market upon graduation. Sharing his thoughts, AinsleyAlles, CEO – Orient Insurance Company said, “We need this kind of well-polished students with the right set of knowledge to join the insurance sector and to help its growth.” Meanwhile, RohanSamaradivakara, COO – eChannelling PLC stressed, “This is a grand opportunity for ANC students. At eChannelling, we can give them work placements in IT, Marketing and Finance sections.”
ANC Co-op also offers employers a host of advantages including an unlimited resource of motivated and skilled future professionals. Sharing her experience, Kavindi Miranda, John F. Kennedy University Program said, “It exposes us to the corporate world and how it works before we actually set our foot out to the world as graduates.”