Association of HR Professionals partners with University of Kelaniya

Department of Human Resources Management, University of Kelaniya partnered with Association of HR Professionals (AHRP) – the only HR professional association in Sri Lanka to hold a National Summit on People Management. A multitude of stakeholder segments including, the HR professionals, HR policy makers, HR undergraduates and HR postgraduates congregated with the aim of conversing on ‘The National Summit on People Management: Peopling for National Wealth’. 

Accordingly, the first ever summit in this calibre was held on 19 October at Waters Edge, based on the theme: ‘Arousing a new praxis of People Management for Creative Development’ which corresponds with the today’s context of the human resource management. 

The Chief Guest of the event was Dr. Harsha de Silva, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Senior Professor, Sunanda Madduma Bandara, the Vice Chancellor, University of Kelaniya and Professor (Dr.) D.M. Semasinghe, the Dean, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya graced this occasion with the Chief Gust. The academic keynote speaker for the event was Prof. Gary McLean, Emeritus professor of HRD at University of Minnesota, USA whilst the professional keynote speaker was Dinesh Weerakkody, the Chairman at the National Human Resource Development Council of Sri Lanka. AHRP partnered with the department as the Resourcing Partner for the People Colloquium.

The Summit was comprised of four distinct sessions namely, ‘The People Management Colloquium’, ‘The Academic Convention’, ‘The Postgraduates’ Caucus’ and ‘The Undergraduates’ Confab. The Summit as a whole represented all the spheres of work from professionals to undergraduates of around 150 participants. 

Under these four pillars many important activities were held. One of those is the insightful panel discussion which was moderated by Pradeepa Kekulawala (President AHRP/Head of Human Resources, Sri Lankan Airlines Ltd). Members of the panel were Ravi Jayasekera (Vice President Human Resources, Union Bank of Colombo Plc.), Chandi Dharmaratne (Senior director HR VirtusaPolaris), Paduma Subasinghe (Senior vice President Group HR Browns & Co. Plc.), Chandana Wijayanama (Secretary AHRP/ General Manager HR – South Asia Gateway Terminals Ltd.), Kanishka Weerasinghe (Director General of Employers Federation of Ceylon), and Dr. Nisha Arunathilake (Fellow Researcher of Institute of Policy Studies). 

Among the key takeaways of the panel discussion that was focused on employability attributes of university graduates were:

a.    Having achieved a millstone in academic knowledge, university students should be open to start their learning in practical aspects of doing a job

b.    University students should start acquiring employability skills early as possible before its time to search for jobs

c.    Students should work on identifying the career preferences early as possible and work towards a target supported by universities and future employers. 

d.    Universities and public and corporate organisations should work together to build meaningful internships targeting employability of university students

A Memorandum of Understanding, initiated by the Dept. of Human Resource Management, was signed between the University of Kelaniya and the Sampath Bank Plc. by the Vice Chancellor and Aruna Jayasekara, the Group HR officer, Sampath Bank for undergraduate skills development and internship.

The academic convention contained boundless valuable presentations by Prof. M.J.S. Wijeyaratne (Director of the Research Council, University of Kelaniya), Prof. Ajantha Dharmasiri (Director and the Chairman of the Board of Management – Postgraduate Institute of Management), Dr. Saman Kalegama (Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies). The postgraduate caucus started with the keynote speech by Aruna Dayanatha (Deputy General Manager/ Head of HR at SANASA Development Bank Ltd.) and followed with Master of Human Resource Management action learning finding presentations including a special business and HRD case study of Colombo International Container Terminals Ltd., our silver sponsor was presented by Majula Karaliyadda and Jeevan Premasara. Then the undergraduate action learning project outcome presentations were done under the pillar, Undergradute Confab.

The proceedings of the Summit were published in Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management, Essence of HRM, and People Masters’ MHRM Journal while launching the ‘People Management Review’, our corporate friendly journal magazine. 

This ground breaking event was organised under the guidance of Dr. D.U. Mohan, Head, Dept. of HRM and the chair of the NSPM-2016, Dr. D.U. Mohan and the co-chairs, M.D.P. Peris and Welmilla  the senior lecturers of the Dept. of HRM. The gold sponsor of the event was the Master of Human Resource Management program, and the Colombo International Container Terminals Limited (CICT) became the Silver Sponsor while Lanka Orix Leasing Company (LOLC) provided the Bronze Sponsor.