In the latest of its educational and training collaborations with the corporate sector, the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) will offer a scholarship to the top performing insurance agents of Union Assurance (UA). This scholarship will provide the high achievers of the Union Assurance Bancassurance team with an opportunity to follow a customised Certificate in Professional Selling (CPS) programme fully sponsored by the company. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SLIM and Union Assurance PLC took place recently at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo.

The Certificate in Professional Selling (CPS) is designed to provide a vital professional qualification for sales teams and enable them to achieve success in today’s ultracompetitive marketplace, whilst helping them grow, both as individuals and professionals. In addition to being tailor-made to meet the requirements of UA, the programme will consist of industry examples by a highly knowledgeable and qualified panel of lecturers. In addition, to offer the utmost benefit and convenience to Union Assurance through these scholarships, SLIM will include exams, a log book, assignments and integrate the individual company KPIs along with the attendance.

The President of SLIM, Mr. Suranjith Swaris touched on the reasons that SLIM entered into this partnership. “As the national body of marketing it is our responsibility to enrich Sri Lanka with marketing education. The corporate programmes of SLIM have earned the confidence of the sector as they have been proven to effectively contribute towards enhancing the perfo r mance of employe e s. Furthermore, from an individual perspective, the education pathway created by the Certificate in Professional Selling could take any sales person to the top of their careers, thereby contributing to the revenue growth of their employer.

This partnership too will be a part of our grand vision of contributing to the expansion of the economy and the development of the nation through marketing.” Speaking on behalf of Union Assurance, the Director/CEO, Mr. Dirk Pereira stated, “For a rapidly growing company such as ours, providing necessary education and training to our staff is a priority. We are confident that the programme we have jointly developed with SLIM will significantly enhance our employees’ capabilities and help us achieve our business objectives.”

The CEO/Executive Director of SLIM, Mr. Sanath Senanayake spoke about the corporate educational partnerships of SLIM. “This is the latest in a series of partnership agreements that SLIM has entered into with top corporate entities over the years. As with all previous partnerships, I am confident that this too will lead to a significant enhancement of staff capabilities at Union Assurance, which will ultimately drive the growth of the company.” The Assistant General Manager of Bancassurance, Union Assurance, - Mr. Samantha Herath highlighted the value addition of the localised content of CPS.

“Practicing sales and marketing to suit the local context is vital as the Sri Lankan market has its own unique attributes. The SLIM CPS provides this local insight alongside global learnings to help students succeed in Sri Lanka’s competitive environment and I believe it will be a great strength for our team to soar past the industry competition.” A total of 30 students from Union Assurance PLC’s Bancassurance team have been enrolled in the programme and classes are scheduled to be held once a month. Being the national body of marketing, SLIM bears the responsibility to educate Sri Lankans to progress in their marketing careers. Further, the SLIM ISO 9001:2015 certification in recognition of SLIM’s superior quality management system and the ISO 2990:2010 for Learning Service Provider (LSP), proving non-formal education and training services, which enables SLIM to retain and ensure the high standard of education for its students.