Aiming at enhancing the knowledge of the youth in Kalutara regarding the career opportunities available to them the first "Cross Roads 2011- Leap to the Future" Career Guidance Seminar and Education Fair was completed successfully on the 21st of October 2011 at Holy Cross College Kalutara. This event was organized by the Holy Cross College - Kalutara - Old Boys Union Colombo Branch under the guidance of the Provincial Education Department - Western Province and with the patronage of Rev. Fr. (Dr) Camillus Fernando the principal of Holy Cross College - Kalutara.
 The career guidance seminar was held with more than 1000 A/L students invited from the schools in the district participating and the education fair was opened to all the schools as well as the general public. The teachers from the schools were also invited to participate so that they would be able to take back and share the lessons learnt from the seminar with the other students of their respective schools.
Launching the event the principal of the College Rev. Fr. (Dr) Camillus Fernando made the comments; "The student of the modern age has to capture knowledge and develop but knowledge without self discipline becomes worthless" which laid the foundation for the rest of the program of the day. The Career Guidance Seminar was conducted by a very versatile team from Aitken Spence who walked participants through a career planning process and it was noteworthy to see even the distinguished invitees participating in the exercises and activities. Subsequent to the seminar the students were also given the opportunity to visit various stall holders and interact with them to learn more about the different career opportunities and educational opportunities available to them.
The enthusiasm seen at the "Cross Roads - Leap to the Future" 2011 edition has indicated that there is a burning need among the student population in the district to learn and develop their careers and to understand the true potential of their knowledge/skills. Therefore the program had been successful in its primary objectives of guiding the students on the correct path with regard to identifying career path and developing a plan to succeed in each person's chosen path. Also going by the success of the 2011 event the organizing committee is looking forward to making the 2012 event a much bigger event with the participation of more students, teachers, parents and education institutes.
There were many individuals and institutions behind the success of this event and the Holy Cross College - old Boys Union Colombo Branch would like to thank all the knowledge partners and sponsors who contributed. CIMA was the principal knowledge partner of Cross Roads - 2011 and BCS, EdExcel, SLIM, City & Guilds, Western College for Management & Technology, Intitute of Bankers of Sri Lanka ,Mercury Institute Of Management, Academy Of Management Education, Achievers Lanka Business School and NIBM were the other knowledge partners of the event. With regard to the corporate sponsors Elephant House were the main sponsor with Seylan Bank, Glaxo Smithkline ,Access, Kandos chocolates, Aviva NDB Insurance ,Prigon Lanka (pvt)Ltd ,CMA-CGM as well as J B Securities (Pvt) Ltd coming on board to make this event successful while the contributions made by Keells Super and Kist Biscuits would also noteworthy. There were also exhibition stalls run by the Vocational Training Authority and the Youth Council which were aimed at providing the youth of Kalutara with a glimpse into other alternative career paths that can be chosen.
Since this was the first time such an event was held at Holy Cross College -Kalutara the assistance provided by the media partners was a key factor of success. Sunday Times - Education Times, Daily FT and Tharunaya were the print media partners of the event while the electronic media partnership was with Sirasa TV . The organizing committee would like to take this opportunity to thank all knowledge partners and sponsors for their contribution and are confident that they would be well represented in the future events as well. |
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