The challenges faced by brick-and-mortar retailers have accelerated at staggering speed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis. The latest data from McKinsey shows that consumers are likely to keep the behaviors they’ve adopted amid stay-at-home orders that have resulted in retailers needing to offer a simple and seamless e-commerce experience, from browsing to researching, selecting, purchasing, and returning and exchanging. This in turn has led to the E-commerce industry skyrocketing with the search for a talented and innovative workforce to fulfill the requirements of catering to customers in this space.

Given this need in the market, leading higher education institute Horizon Campus was instrumental in bringing a unique opportunity for their students to gain a competitive edge for career opportunities in this sphere, by initiating a quality internship opportunity through partnering with Daraz.lk the company behind the country’s foremost online shopping site, which is a group company of the global e-commerce giant Alibaba. com. The MOU signed between the CEO of Horizon Campus, Mr.Ajitha Wanasinghe, and Mr.Rakhil Fernando, Managing Director of Daraz Sri Lanka, will entail in Daraz.lk awarding internship and training opportunities for undergraduates of Horizon Campus, as well as offering career scopes within the organisation and initiating an industry-academic collaboration to foster and nurture students in the areas of digital marketing and e-commerce skills.

Whilst the partnership will benefit Horizon Campus through the support and provision of valuable experience for students in being trained to work in real business situations of the E-commerce industry, Daraz.lk will in turn gain opportunities in having customized degree pathways designed specifically to enable their staff members further qualify in a variety of scopes from management to technology. Mr.Ajitha Wanasinghe, CEO of Horizon Campus said” the front-line e-commerce worker is a top job category that is on the rise, with e-commerce companies needing trained and qualified workers to get products into the hands of customers, resulting in a boom of recruitment and on-boarding of thousands into this industry.

The evolution in the sector will create more progressive functions for employees to thrive and develop careers and we wanted to offer this opportunity to our students. Our partnership with Daraz.lk stems from the fact that Alibaba the main group company of Daraz is amongst one of the global leaders in the e-commerce space, with Daraz, in turn, being a market leader in the Asian Region. We wanted our students to be trained from the best and Daraz aptly meets this requirement.

“ Mr.Rakhil Fernando, Managing Director of Daraz Sri Lanka, added “ This is an exciting partnership between Daraz SriLanka and Horizon Campus, as this partnership will facilitate existing students & graduates to gain insight and employment opportunities with Daraz, while we in turn benefit from students who graduate with specializations in varied sectors. We will also leverage this partnership to look at skills development among our Operations & Delivery Team members, where they are offered the opportunity to upskill through specialized courses.

” Horizon Campus with its futuristic vision of training students for career opportunities in rapidly growing industries is confident this partnership will pave the way for their students to gain the knowledge and skills that will allow for a smooth transition from the stage of learning directly to the path of securing top careers in the e-commerce industry.