Wilat paving the way for youngsters

Women in Logistics and Transport (WiLAT) Sri Lanka concluded yet another successful event on 26 January on ‘Interview facing techniques’ at the Auditorium of the National Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka for mentees registered under their ‘Ignite’ mentoring program. 

It was heartening to witness the participation of an enthusiastic group of youngsters from many different universities and from the industry. The session was conducted by Dilmini Weragama, Quality Assurance Manager, GTM of Unilever Sri Lanka. She shared her knowledge and experience with the youngsters in an interactive way ensuring that the audience was well engaged. 

The program focused on how to mentally and physically prepare oneself to successfully face an interview. Dilmini never failed to keep the audience on their toes with all the interesting stories she had to share. She emphasised on interview facing techniques, Dos and Don’ts at an interview and many other key areas on which the attention should be drawn prior to facing an interview. Later the session was followed with group exercises to engage participants and to familiarise them on preparation involved for an Interview.

Key highlight of the evening was the mock interview session to demonstrate a real life interview scenario. Two young interviewees were exposed to an eminent panel of interviewers consisting of Sarath Jayasinghe, Group HR Director, DSI group of Companies, Gihan Jayasinghe, Executive Director, Finlays Colombo Ltd. and Dr. Ganga Samarasekera, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Their expert comments and insights undoubtedly enlightened the youngsters.

WiLAT Chairperson Gayani de Alwis in her concluding remarks mentioned the audience that WiLAT will be conducting a series of programs like this in the future to make youngsters capable of entering the world of work with confidence and urged the mentees to make use of this opportunity for their own development. She also thanked WiLAT Vice Chairperson Anoma Ranasinghe and Exco member Maithree Attanayaka for taking the lead to organise this interactive workshop. Judging by the feedback received, the event was indeed successful and WiLAT continue their journey on paving the way for budding young professionals to excel in their chosen career paths in the field of logistics and transport.

WILAT is the women’s forum of the Charted Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Sri Lanka. Currently WiLAT is present in 18 countries with over 1,600 members in four continents. The WiLAT SL forum was formed in 2013 by the CILT SL to encourage the representation of women in the transport and logistics industry and to address the wide gender imbalance. WiLAT Sri Lanka creates awareness on career opportunities, increases access to information and supports continuous professional development. 

The forum also offers networking opportunities to share industry best practice as well as training and mentoring opportunities. Ignite mentoring program is the flagship event of WiLAT SL which provides an opportunity for young females to be mentored by senior ladies in the industry annually.