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ICASL and
Microsoft collaboration to enhance IT education within the
Accountancy profession
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri
Lanka (ICASL) and Microsoft Sri Lanka (Private) Limited signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently , to enhance the
Information Technology related skills of ICASL members,
students, staff and interested parties through various skill
development training programmes.
The agreement for this collaboration was signed by President,
ICASL, Nishan Fernando and Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka,
Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne.
This collaboration comes at a time when President H.E. Mahinda
Rajapaksa has called for total commitment to make Sri Lanka
reach the 50 percent mark in national IT literacy by the end of
2010. The President extended this challenge during the
declaration of 2009 as the Year of English and IT 2009 on
February 13.
ICASL is the premier national body of accountants committed to
serving society by promoting and developing accountancy
expertise towards resource management at the highest levels of
integrity and competence. Microsoft Sri Lanka - a fully owned
subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, the world leader in
software, services and solutions – has achieved a wide and
impactful reach in Sri Lanka by bringing in new technological
solutions in the business arena, enabling people and businesses
realise their full potential.
The two institutions said that it was the right time to use
their best efforts to bring together the joint capabilities and
resources to enhance the Information Technology among
accountancy professionals. “Our efforts at this juncture will
compliment the Government’s declaration of the Year of IT-2009.
We will align our strategies to support this concept,” they
said.
Rapid developments in information technology (IT) have posed
many challenges to the accounting profession. Following the
agreement, Microsoft and ICASL plan to organise seminars on the
adoption and usage of ERP solutions, CRM platforms, IT security,
Business Intelligence, Using Office Suite more effectively etc.
“We will discuss about the needs and will ensure that ICASL
members, students and other beneficiaries acquire necessary IT
knowledge/skills through our collaboration. This will also give
a chance to ICASL members and students to gain more exposure in
the Information Technology field in the future,” they said. The
collaboration seeks to enhance the competencies of the finance
professionals and increase employability of the students and
aspiring members, enabling them to be better equipped to face
the digitally empowered future, whilst adding a new dimension to
their organizational capabilities.
Further, as part of the above MOU, the computer labs at ICASL
will be equipped through the Dynamics Academic Alliance
Programme, granting them access to the latest versions of
Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Dynamics CRM software systems,
enabling the students and the member community of ICASL to gain
hands-on experience on latest Microsoft technologies.
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Graduate Enterprise Challenge 09
– Grooming the Next Generation of Technology Entrepreneurs
Technology driven globalization is creating
unprecedented opportunities for anyone from anywhere to create
business in a way which was unimaginable several years ago. We
are clearly entering to an idea economy! The potential to create
significant wealth through business will only be limited by
one’s imagination.
Graduate Enterprise Challenge (GEC) is a business plan
competition that is open to undergraduate and graduate students
in Sri Lanka. It is organised collectively by the British
Council and Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service
Companies (SLASSCOM). GEC is a follow-up project to the National
Entrepreneurship Week Sri Lanka 2008 (NEW 08) conducted in
November 2008.
British Council has pioneered ‘Graduate Entrepreneurship’
development in Sri Lanka under the auspices of the Ministry of
Higher Education and the University Grants Commission. Graduate
Enterprise Challenge is the latest of a series of activities
organised by the British Council funded by the UK Prime
Minister’s Initiative (PMI2) for the development of
international education partnerships.
The joint venture between British Council and SLASSCOM aims to
promote technology entrepreneurship and encourage business
networks between graduate enterprises in Sri Lanka and the UK
SLASSCOM Entrepreneurship and Innovation forum is set with the
aim to drive technology entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. SLASSCOM
acts as the catalyst of growth for the Sri Lankan IT and BPO
industry by facilitating trade and business, propagation of
education and employment, encouragement of research and
innovation, and by supporting the creation of a progressive
national policy framework. ****
Amba Research trains Lankan
financial market professionals Amba
Research’s Equity Investment Analyst training programme
completed a course for its batch recently, giving Sri Lankan
financial market professionals an exhaustive, hands-on
introduction to all aspects of equity research.
The programme was conducted in association with the Securities
and Exchange Commission’s Financial Services Academy (FSA). The
first batch included participants from prestigious local
financial institutions including the EPF, Union Assurance, HNB
Assurance, DFCC, Capital Alliance, and the Central Bank of Sri
Lanka. The batch of ten finance professionals was taken through
an intense 10-day course combining concept training with
hands-on case study submissions.
Amba Research provided close guidance and coaching by trainers
who are practicing equity research analysts covering leading
global equity markets. Amba Research’s Head of Knowledge
Management and Training Chanakya Dissanayake said that all the
sessions received positive feedback.
“Candidates especially liked specific delivery methods used to
take them through the entire equity research cycle,” he said.
The workshop comprises three core modules; financial modeling,
securities valuation, and investment report writing.
The programme has received glowing tributes from participants.
“The program was very comprehensive,” Jayamehala Haridas, Senior
Manager at Union Assurance, said. ”It provided hands-on training
in all the aspects of the valuation process as well as in
writing a strong investment thesis.
Participants were given individual attention by a committed
panel of trainers,” she added.
Deshan Pushparajah of Capital Alliance Holdings said “the
structure of the workshop was geared to empower participants at
the workplace, with real life case studies and do-it-yourself
analysis of such scenarios. What I enjoyed the most was the
one-on-one assistance that was provided to the participants.”
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