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The MAS Holdings, Deutsche Bank and Dialog Summer Internship Program concluded on the 15 August 2012 at the Dialog Future World Academy.
Students from the 2012 internship batch made presentations to the Boards of the three companies which included Deshamanya Mahesh Amalean (Chairman – MAS Holdings), Rohan Rodrigo (Country Head – Deutsche Bank) and Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya (Group Chief Executive – Dialog Axiata)
Out of seven thousand applications, 23 students were selected for this six week program which included experience-based training, competency building workshops, familiarisation to the three companies, meetings with distinguished corporate heads, industry-related projects and a CSR initiative to raise money for a worthy cause.
Students ranged from top universities in the island, to foreign institutions such as Cambridge, Warwick and McGill.
The Stride Fashion Show was organised by the students as a part of their CSR Project. The Ramada Hotel hosted an evening where Sri Lanka’s elite models took to the catwalk to showcase some of the country’s leading apparel brands.
Over Rs. 1.3 million was raised, and all proceeds were channelled to Trail – Sri Lanka, for the Construction of the Radiotherapy Unit and Development of a High Dependency Paediatric Unit at the Jaffna Hospital.
During their internship, the students visited 3M and met with 3M Sri Lanka CEO Suren Rajanathan in order to gain an appreciation of the company and understand how its journey to be tagged as one the most innovative institutions in the world.
They were invited to visit the British High Commission where they met with High Commissioner John Rankin. SoftLogic Chairman Ashok Pathirage also graciously hosted the interns at one of his offices and spoke at length in the topic on entrepreneurship.
Leadership coaching was provided to the interns by Rukmal de Silva of 361 Edge, Presentation Skills Workshop was conducted by Sharlyn Stafford and experiential learning was facilitated by Borderlands – Sri Lanka.
As described by Nirmal Silva (University of Moratuwa Student): “I have been on many internship programmes, but I have never had an experience of this nature in my life. It surpassed all my expectations.”
The main objective of this program was to give students an insight into career opportunities in Sri Lanka, and provide them with the tools to successfully integrate into the corporate sector upon completion of their degrees.