Coke promotes value added education

Conducts personality development workshops for employees children through its Brave World initiative

Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Limited, the foremost sparkling and still drinks manufacturer in the island, recently conducted a Personality Development Workshop for the children of the Coke family, aged between 12 to 14 years.

Providing ‘Value Added Education’ to children is the core CSR agenda of Coca-Cola Sri Lanka. Coca-Cola has carried-out this program several times in the past for the children in our country and takes pride in training more than 700 potential future leaders of Sri Lanka. Coca-Cola’s objective through this exercise is to inculcate and tap the potential of the children when they are still young, to mould them to be future leaders with a vision for their future and to bring out the total personality in them.

The program was facilitated by the experienced trainers from The Personality Development Institute, which is headed by Mr. Gihan Thalgodapitiya, who himself led the training program.

Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Manager Human Resources Development and Employee Relations Rohitha Amarapala said: “The phrase ‘Coke family’ is not by any means vague or ostentatious. We passionately believe that the Coke Family is comprised of all our employees, their spouses, family members and of course their precious children. The children, in particular, are our partners for the future. Building Sri Lanka’s future generations is a responsibility of the parents, business leaders like Coca-Cola and by and large, all Sri Lankans. In this aspect, it should be viewed as an investment for life.”

This interactive one day workshop consisted of team building games, mind exercises, personality building activities and creative exercises that were sure to inculcate self esteem, a passion for success, positive attitudes, morals, and values.

Through the many exercises, the children were able to demonstrate their leadership skills, were made to work as a team, which taught them the importance of planning, prioritizing their work, being innovative and creative. Presentations that were made that helped to develop their communication skills. Through this program, we also envisage to recover self imposed fears.

Commenting on the program, Ms. Rushika Perera, Public Affairs and Communications Manager for Coca-Cola said “We felt it necessary during this festive season of giving, to reward our children with a message of affection. It is not only the responsibility of the parent but ours, as a company as well, to provide our younger generation with sound and proper guidance, attitudes and life enhancing skills in order for them to make their mark, with confidence, in today’s challenging and tomorrow’s competitive and emerging world. Coca-Cola Sri Lanka wants to be the active agent in making a life long change in the lives of our children.”

Ms. Perera also said that they have got very positive and encouraging feedback from children, as well as their parents, about the workshop, which is conducted according to the guidelines of formal corporate training. She further stated that the company is planning to conduct a few more programs of this nature in the future and plans are underway to take their Value Added Education concept to higher and more rewarding levels by expanding to rural areas, too.