- INSIGHT 2021 by AIESEC in UoC on creating the future-ready young professional
With the pandemic wreaking sweet havoc on the job market as well as everything else it can lay its hands on, AIESEC in University of Colombo has launched INSIGHT 2021, their fifth annual corporate event that looks to give undergraduates from a range of universities a better understanding and knowledge about the corporate sectors they’re hoping to enter over the coming year as well as soft skills that can help them truly shine in interviews and at the workplace.
Brunch spoke with INSIGHT 2021 Organising Committee President Gajaneei Ragubathi for a little more on what INSIGHT is all about and how it is taking place amidst the pandemic. Ragubathi explained that this fifth edition of INSIGHT is taking place virtually to account for the pandemic. She also shared that this year’s event has been redesigned to create maximum impact among the 120 undergrads from partner universities taking part, with the event taking place in three segments created to prepare this delegation for what to expect and how to integrate into the corporate world.
“We’ve restructured the event this time around so that the undergraduates are much closer to the company representatives and can discuss with them more,” Ragubathi explained. “Over the last four years INSIGHT has taken place as panel discussions or webinars, something that most people are getting bored of these days. With INSIGHT this year, the delegations get to engage a lot more with the corporate representatives and learn more about the world they’re hoping to get into.”
INSIGHT 2021 takes place from 25 July and concludes on 14 August. Ragubathi explained that this year’s event has been split into three segments with different aims and outcomes.
The first segment, Corporate Dive (25 July to 7 August) is a mentoring period where the 120 undergraduate delegates are personally mentored by representatives from companies from five different large industries, human resources management, manufacturing, finance, IT, and marketing with a range of companies from each industry coming on board to mentor undergraduates on both industry-specific topics as well as general career-building. The companies who have partnered with INSIGHT 2021 as mentors are Talent Fort, Career Me, and Talent Nest (human resources management); MAS Holdings and Youth Business Sri Lanka(manufacturing); the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (finance); Virtusa (IT); and Parallax Technologies (marketing).
The second segment, Strikers (9 to 12 August) is a four-day podcast series featuring personalities from the world of business who will focus on the skills that young professionals need to thrive in the corporate world and become better leaders in the workplace. Strikers will also feature other engagement activities like quizzes and other interactive activities. The key podcasts will be livestreamed on the AIESEC Sri Lanka Facebook page at 7 p.m. on 9, 10, and 12 August, and at 5 p.m. on 11 August.
The final segment of INSIGHT 2021, Corporate Day, on 14 August will be a webinar event combining a panel discussion of international business leaders, as well as a wrap up of the INSIGHT 2021 experience including a small selection of awards that will be given to INSIGHT 2021’s most exciting and promising undergraduate delegates.
“The overall goal of INSIGHT 2021 is to give undergraduates more insight and exposure about the qualities that other personalities in the corporate world are following, as well as the trends that their industry are pursuing,” Ragubathi said, adding that the most important skills undergraduates need to develop to excel in the workplace are soft skills like good decision making and problem-solving skills, saying that many undergraduates are “not solution-oriented, becoming more and more dependent in certain situations. With INSIGHT, we hope to improve that and give undergraduates the tools to move further in those sectors”.
INSIGHT 2021 will take place on various dates from 25 July to 15 August. The final corporate day INSIGHT 2021 will be live streamed on 15 August 2021 from 7 p.m. onwards via AIESEC Sri Lanka’s Facebook page. For more information, please visit the INSIGHT 2021 Facebook event page.