Rashitha Delapola, Director Training, National Youth Services Council, Manula Perera, Director Admin, National Youth Services Council, Pasindu Gunarathne, Chairman/Director General, National Youth Services Council, Roshan Ranasinghe, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Anuradha Razdan, Executive Director-Hindustan Unilever Limited, Bathiya Dayaratne, Customer Development Director, Unilever Sri Lanka, Ananya Sabharwal, Human Resources Director of Unilever Sri Lanka and Hajar Alafifi, Chairperson and Managing Director of Unilever Sri Lanka.
Unilever Sri Lanka, in its commitment to fostering economic growth and empowering young individuals, has joined hands with the National Youth Services Council to launch an island-wide career development programme.
With the objective of enabling Sri Lankan youth to have a purposeful and future fit career in Sri Lanka, Unilever Sri Lanka and the National Youth Services Council will initially conduct workshops in Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts reaching over 350 people.
Following the workshops, a selected number of students will have the option of enrolling in a 6-month Certificate in Sales Course at the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), which will entail in class lectures as well as field placements.
To facilitate optimal engagement and support the learning experience, Unilever Sri Lanka will contribute a portion of the course fee and ensure placements for the participants after completing three months of in-class lectures.
Unilever Limited Executive Director-Hindustan, Anuradha Razdan stated; “Driven by our purpose to make sustainable living commonplace, social commitments at Unilever focuses on contributing to a fairer and more socially inclusive world. One such commitment is to upskill ten million youth across the world by 2030, enhancing their employability with essential skills. Government or private sector cannot do this alone, hence collaboration between various groups is important to strengthen these opportunities for our youth.”
Unilever Sri Lanka Human Resources Director Ananya Sabharwal said; “At Unilever Sri Lanka we are committed to reach 100,000 youth lives by 2025. This is implemented through student engagement programmes in partnership with universities island-wide, where we deliver unique employment models such as ULearn for industry exposure.”
Unilever Sri Lanka Chairperson and Managing Director Hajar Alafifi said; “We have been rooted in the country for 85 years and we know the future of our brands is in the hands of the youth.”
Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Roshan Ranasinghe stated; “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the National Youth Services Council and Unilever Sri Lanka for partnering to develop the youth of our nation. To witness success and development it is important for all of us to work together. I believe Unilever has many best practices and learnings from developing its business in many countries.” National Youth Services Council Chairman and Director General Pasindu Gunarathne stated; “We are proud to announce the launch of ‘Tharunyata Aruthak,’ a youth empowerment project in collaboration with Unilever Sri Lanka.”