Keells signs MOU with University of Kelaniya to drive hands-on retail industry exposure

Keells Supermarkets partnered with the University of Kelaniya, Department of Marketing Management to enhance the skills of youth through real-life expertise and insights from the retail industry. Collaborating as a strategic partner, Keells will contribute to the Marketing and Digital Marketing Degrees through lectures, knowledge sharing sessions, internships and job placements.

Being the only ISO 9001:2015 certified Business Management Department and SAP University Alliance Partner in the country, the Department of Marketing Management at The University of Kelaniya strives to cultivate competent, capable and confident individuals who are able to elevate the people and businesses that they work with to greater heights. In their quest to produce employable youth with relevant skills to the job market, the University will partner with Keells, the Most Valuable SUpermarket Brand in the country and continue to break new ground with consistent innovations in marketing, logistics and retail industry-specific skills.

Keells in their journey to improve the quality of life for the nation has long been striving to skill and empower the youth of Sri Lanka providing job opportunities to thousands of youth across the country. The knowledge sharing sessions in the Retail Marketing Course Module, grounded in the realities of the industry against the theory that is learned within the course will indeed support undergraduates to link their theoretical knowledge with practical examples. Students will be evaluated and graded on the applicability of their learnings by way of an industrial case study at a Keells outlet, providing them with an immersive experience of the operations and challenges of the retail industry. From each batch of undergraduates, 10 students will have the opportunity to follow their aspirations through employment opportunities at Keells, provided under the Retail Management Trainee programme.

The partnership will begin on the 17th of February, 2022, and this programme will pave the way for students to gain a stronger exposure to practical, real-world problems and find solutions using a combination of their theoretical knowledge, teamwork, innovative thinking and the learned expertise of the industry’s leaders. This collaboration will also drive stronger ties between local universities and the private sector industry players to provide employability and employment to many.?