16 Jun Tips to Mould your Career; Insights from an academic specialist
ACOBA Media Subcommittee Vice President, Mr. Shashika Jayathilaka interviewed Mr. Rakitha Abeygunawardhana, Attorney at Law, Director – Legal and Administration at Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lakehouse Limited) and member of the Administrative Council of the University of Kelaniya, at “The Buddhist” Channel on 16th June 2021.This insightful discussion revealed some invaluable ideas of the resource person regarding how the young generation should shape up their career and life.
“Parents should stop trying to achieve their unfulfilled dreams through their children. It’s a wrong attitude if a parent thinks I could not be an engineer so I want my son to be.” Mr. Abeygunawardhana stated. He mentioned the importance of giving the freedom to the child what he / she is interested in doing, while the parents role should be limited to giving guidance, showing the right path and helping them to realize what is right and wrong in the selected path. “Parents should help make their children’s dream more beautiful instead.” Mr. Abeygunawardhana added.
He pointed out that there are plenty of new academic and professional pathways offered by state / private universities and vocational training institutions hence the choices for the youth are vast. Students should be able to build their academic and professional qualifications to fit his/her dream career.
The guest speaker is of the opinion that it is not right to expect the government to give jobs to all those who pass out from state universities. A degree is an academic qualification whereas jobs need professional qualifications, which the students need to acquire from various other ways. Vocational training programs are offered by the government and the private sector, which would help students build professional qualifications.
Today there is a much wider job market open locally and overseas for skilled professions such as hairdressing, plumbing, carpentry and quantity surveying. Those who are well trained and qualified can earn much higher than what a traditional government servant in the executive grade earns. However, parents and students need to make up their minds to change their perception on such new professions.
Mr. Abeygunawardhana pointed out the importance of having a simple lifestyle where one should spend to acquire what they actually need instead of buying too luxury things which do not fit that person’s income just to impress the society or to compete with others.
Also he stressed the importance of following Lord Buddha’s preaches about income and expenditure where one should not consume everything he earns, but he needs to allocate proportions for savings and investments.
More than a discussion about career guidance, this program on “The Buddhist” Channel was a life lesson from someone who reached the apex of his professional career at a very young age.
The YouTube video of the program is accessible from the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQZKjf8h5rA.