The Stax Academy, an initiative by Stax LLC, a global strategy consulting firm that specializes in delivering actionable, data-driven insights, recently conducted its graduation ceremony for the students of its first course in Colombo. The Academy was established as a platform to upskill future business leaders to take on the challenges of the global economy. The class consisted of 30 students representing various universities across Sri Lanka who successfully completed the four-month certification program.

In his address at the graduation ceremony, Dr. Kumudu Gunasekara, Managing Director, Stax, said, “Due to the current economic condition in Sri Lanka, lots of youth are seeking foreign employment opportunities and leaving our shores. As corporates, I believe that we can support our youth by providing these opportunities within the country so that they have the same overseas experience right here at home.” He also spoke about the importance of being dreamers and not followers. And the importance of dreaming big to achieve individual goals. “Age is not a barrier to achieving your dreams. This is a critical notion to break in Sri Lanka,” he added.

Adding his thoughts, Ruwindhu Peiris, Managing Director, Stax, said, “It is important that our new talent enter the workforce, ‘corporate prepared’ and ‘global ready’. The Stax Academy introduces young talent to modern skill sets demanded by the evolving corporate world. It nurtures and cultivates essential competencies to develop and transform them to be Sri Lanka’s future corporate leaders.”

Kethaka Weerasuriya, a graduate of Edith Cowan University (ECU) Sri Lanka noted that being able to embrace challenges makes you a competitive job candidate in any field. “Teamwork put us outside our comfort zone, and we realized that surrounding ourselves with the best people can help us achieve great things in life.”

A student from the National School of Business Management (NSBM), Kavinda Hasaranga who joined the certification program spoke about how they learned many things that they didn’t know about the corporate world and how much they loved the work culture at Stax.

“Through data analytics we learned advanced Excel, and about web creating tools, social media analytics, work cloud, and so on. Even though data analytics was for our skill development, I have been using them for budgeting my personal expenses.” stated Omar Zaneefer, a graduate from the Royal Institute of Colombo (RIC).

A panel discussion was also held in parallel to the graduation ceremony and the panelists included Stax Managing Directors, Dr. Kumudu Gunasekara and Mr. Ruwindhu Peiris; Edith Cowan University (ECU) Sri Lanka Program Convenor/Lecturer, Dr. Anushka Siriwardana; RIC Chief Coordinator, Corporate, Alumni and Student Engagement, Ms. Sharmain Abeykoon; and NSBM Lecturer, Ms. Vageesha Rajapaksa.

The Stax Academy program offers a combination of micro-learnings across specific functional and professional skill pillars needed to establish a successful career in Management Consulting as well as in general industries. The program focuses on delivering practical learning experiences through exposing candidates to different types of workstreams and projects to uncover their strengths and explore their aspirations. The course is centered on the principles of Ikigai with the objective of enabling candidates to explore workstreams that are value-focused, fulfilling, and purposeful.

Stax, the global management consultancy with a strong presence in Sri Lanka announced the launch of ‘Stax Academy’, the firm’s learning platform for up-skilling future business leaders to take-on the challenges of the global economy.

Given Sri Lanka’s present economic climate, students and professionals are facing challenges to secure placements in foreign universities and bridge the gap between their skills and their career aspirations. Concerns related to prohibitive costs and foreign payments are limiting the opportunities available to young professionals and students, with foreign universities deferring local students till Sri Lanka reaches economic stability.

‘Stax Academy’ places its focus on recent graduates from local and foreign educational institutions as well as foreign university hopefuls awaiting entrance to their courses. The program is launched with the vision of designing an on-demand, contemporary learning platform dedicated to upskilling and preparing them for their dream jobs.

The specialized certification program will commence in July in partnership with Royal Institute of Colombo, Edith Cowan University – Sri Lanka Campus, and National School of Business Management (NSBM). The initial batch of 30+ students will consist of latest graduates from the partner institutions undertaking the 16-week certification program.

“The current economic challenges faced by Sri Lanka are causing the youth to lose hope. Many of them are leaving the country to seek opportunities overseas. The resulting brain-drain will have a significant and enduring negative impact on the local economy for many decades to come. As corporates, we have a responsibility to prevent and mitigate this risk by creating opportunities for the youth. This is our aspiration, as we set up the Stax Academy. We hope this initiative will offer Sri Lankan youth, similar opportunities to what they are pursuing overseas. The young professionals we engage through this Academy will be skilled and career-ready to take on the challenges of the future and stay relevant against the global workforce,” commented Dr. Kumudu Gunasekera, Managing Director, Stax.

The Certification program will offer a combination of micro-learnings across specific functional and professional skill pillars needed to succeed both within Stax and the domain of Management Consulting as well as in general industries. Much of the focus of the program will be on the most relevant skills needed by the world. It will be delivered as practical learning experiences which expose candidates to different types of work streams and projects to discover their strengths and aspirations. The program is centered on the principles of Ikigai with the objective of enabling candidates to explore work streams which are value-focused, fulfilling, and purposeful.

The launch of “Stax Academy” follows the strategic investment received by Stax from Blue Point Capital Partners in November, which has enabled the rapid growth in headcount and acceleration of geographic expansion for the data-driven management consultancy. The growth is accompanied by the availability of broader learning opportunities for talent and enhancement of its core offerings around data analytics, commercial due diligence, and specialty consulting services.