NextStep 360

NextStep is one of the signature projects of the club. Since its initiation in 2006, NextStep has been concluded successfully many times under the guidance of several past presidents. Due to its 15-year long history and the accomplishments as one of the biggest Professional Development Conferences in Kandy, the name “NextStep” itself has its own reputation now.

NextStep360^ₒ was an attempt to bridge the gap between career and passion in the hope of providing the undergraduates with the necessary knowledge required to make the right decisions regarding their life. Up to now, the main area of focus of this project has been to prepare the youth for a career after graduation. But it has come to our realisation that, not everyone is seeking a job. While most of us want to become successful workers in the private/public sector, some of us want to pursue higher studies and others want to become entrepreneurs. Therefore, we decided to change the general format of the project and rebrand NextStep as NextStep 360°.

Phase 1 and Phase 2: The Three Sectors 

1.    ACADEMIA

Academic stream addressed the undergraduates who were passionate to go along the academic path. We researched and found out that no one has showed them the effective and efficient path towards their higher education which is more suitable to their domain, passion and talent. From our unique project “NextStep360° we addressed all their issues with durable solutions. We brought opportunities, consultation and experience to their doorstep through experts and specialists in this stream.

2.    Corporate Sector 

Our second stream was for the job seekers who were dreaming to be successful in this competitive job market. We made the work plan of the session in the hope of making energetic and well-motivated young blood to take over the government and private sectors where they lead the countries into the utmost development and where all the people are treated equally without any discrimination. In this session, we met undergraduates with the knowledge and experience of experts and specialists in the corporate world and we prepared them for the drastic changes which are going to happen in the future in this stream with much confidence.

3.    Entrepreneurship 

This was to those who had their own master plans to be successful through their own businesses. We have ample such exemplary personalities in Sri Lanka. We were fortunate to identify such dreamers in our university as well. We thought to give special support to such special personalities by creating a very different stream this time. The session under this stream was specifically created to develop their creativity, critical thinking and management to bring forward independent, strong and young entrepreneurs. We, the NextStep360° believed, this is the time to promote entrepreneurship in our country where we can market our proud heritage and the innovative solutions to resolve the problems that we face locally and globally.

Phase 3 : The final session and the online competition on Marketing

This final session happened to be a highlighter within the whole NextStep360 project as it was the closing event for its term 2020/2021. The organising committee thought to give a twist to the session by conducting an online marketing competition in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Institute Of Marketing. We can call this final session a very practical one as it educated around 200 participants through a well experienced resource person regarding the marketing stream and how we can get the maximum use of our marketing strategies in our day to day life to brand ourselves and our work.

Eleven teams participated for the online competition and a group of experts in SLIM chose the best Marketing plan which happened to be a very difficult task because of the competitors’ competence. At the session, the committee announced the winning team and Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing offered the winning team a valuable scholarship for higher education in the stream of marketing and moreover they offered a scholarship to all the participants of the session as well which made the time and effort fruitful and in a way an investment to their future.

The resource person talked about professional development and its practicality and introduced what actual marketing is. Further they spoke of the importance of professional education and its qualifications and of SLIM operations and its courses which was very worthwhile for all the participants who are passionate about marketing sector. Most importantly, the NextStep 360 committee awarded a certificate of participation for all the participants who were with them since the very beginning of the project, thanking for their immense contribution for the success of this signature project of the club.