Colombo, Thursday 15th March 2018: The pioneer in British higher education in Sri Lanka, Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) today launched the “She Can” campaign in conjunction with International Women’s Day which was celebrated earlier this month. The launch and women’s empowerment conference was held at the Orchid Room, BMICH.
Featuring some of the most renowned business women in the country the “She Can” conference was designed by IIT to empower and inspire women by sharing success stories of successful women in the work place. The workshops also aimed at inculcating knowledge on how to grow as a leader, discovering the triumphs and trials of being a female business owner, leadership challenges and how to overcome them, and to inspire women and girls to be creators and change-makers in business and larger society.
The elite panel of speakers at the event included Nilusha De Silva, Managing Director of Skrumptious who spoke on the topic of “Women in Entrepreneurship”, and Nilushi Jayatileke, Director Marketing (Personal Care) – Unilever Sri Lanka who addressed the subject of “Let’s be the change we want to see”. Niloufer Anverally, Founder & Managing Director, Cotton Collection tackled “Women in Leadership” while Shehani Seneviratne, Chief Operating Officer, 99X Technology Ltd spoke on “Women in IT”.
IIT for more than 28 years has produced more than 3,000 graduates locally and internationally. The women on the panel are all alumni of IIT and are among many female Marketing Directors, Financial Controllers, CEO’s, CTO’s, COO’s, IT Architects, Project Managers, and Software Engineers dominating the Sri Lankan business spectrum.
IIT takes pride in empowering women in higher education from the 1990’s, being a part of their success journey. This year, “She Can” which is an integral part of the institute’s CSR initiatives, will further reiterate its commitment to support more women to get into IT / Business education. Moreover, IIT is offering 20 scholarships to the value of Rs. 35 million for girls who are high achievers in their respective schools.
The event was attended by the cream of Sri Lanka’s business field, corporate professionals secondary and tertiary education students, members of the media and IIT staff.