Staff Development Unit

FCMS has its own domain of subject discipline “Commerce & Business Management” which stands for an exclusive purpose of producing graduates as its immediate responsibility via well set five departments. Each department maintains its own disciplinary template in designing and delivering the content pertained to the respective degree programs. The teaching faculty of each department is expected to content the subject disciplinary knowledge together with complementary skills of delivering the content to students as to maintain the edge of excellence in academic and extracurricular activities. The skills demanded for the academicians particularly in the stream of business management found to be extendedly a dynamic due to the continuous improvements take place amongst the stakeholders those who intend to get the service out of them. For the same, the FCMS has extended its deliveries to external students via the fee levying courses resulting different sets of learning partners demand holistic value deliveries via the teaching faculty of FCMS. At the same time, the well established Staff  Development Centre (SDC) of the University of Kelaniya has been doing a remarkable contribution particularly for the probationary lecturers through the staff development course which is a compulsory requirement for elevating their career. The newly established SDU of FCMS will be aligned to the said SDC of the university whilst facilitating for the customized requirements of the teaching faculty of FCMS depending on the uniqueness of subject discipline and the way how immediate stakeholders expect the deliveries from each degree program and fee levying courses.

Scope for the SDU’s Programmes

As per the set objectives concerning the immediate and unique needs of each department and faculty itself, the following key outcomes are expected to result.

  • The staff of FCMS becomes well equipped with the tailor made mechanism for staff development activities pertained to hard and soft skills.
  • The teaching faculty of FCMS could benefit to improve the needful skills and exposure pertained to different research disciplines in business management domain
  • The teaching faculty of FCMS could enhance the industry specific soft skills to make them enable to add values in teaching and delivering contexts.
  • The FCMS could enhance the flagships with corporate sector through win-win based knowledge sharing forums
  • The FCMS will be able to penetrate the training opportunities for both academic and non academic members by having a mechanism to integrate with relevant centers of the university and outside stakeholders.

Key Objectives of the SDU’s Programmes

The objective of the proposed staff development workshops series are;

  • To design and execute the programs for the teaching faculty to develop soft and hard skills pertained to modern learning environment to excel the quality of delivery. 
  • To facilitate members of the teaching faculty of FCMS to improve the knowledge and skills for both academic and commercial research disciplines specially integrating to business management streams.
  • To train the academics staff members of FCMS to enabling business consultancy services to extend their service for the external stakeholders
  • To facilitate the customized training opportunities for the both academic and non academic members to sharpen professional soft skills as demanded by subject disciplines and faculty identity.
  • To organize business management forums to bridge the corporate sector and academic community of FCMS to inculcate collaborative learning culture to meet win-win contexts.
  • To facilitate the  operational needful to integrate with other centers within the university and outside perspectives to penetrate the training opportunities for the staff members of FCMS

Execution Strategy of Proposed Programs and Content of Deliveries

The workshops and training sessions will be conducted to the participants particularly for the probationary and temporary assistant lecturers of FCMS as two hours sessions in each of fortnight Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 11a.m.The segments of the sessions will be on following categories:

  • Workshops on role of academia in business management domain to steer  excellence of knowledge deliveries : setting up student centric learning atmosphere and creating integrated dissemination approach  
  • Creating effective learning environment and focusing to soft skills driven dissemination of knowledge: emphasis to holistic teaching approach to make learning effective and outcome driven.  
  • Business case study analysis: How to use case study method teaching and architecture process of  a business management case study.  
  • Industry based Research & Consultancy projects: recognizing commercial research opportunities and learning to consultancy services  
  • Career Development Guides: Preparation of needful preliminaries for higher studies opportunities and advisory guides for local & foreign opportunities  
  • Workshops on Improving Research Skills: Analysis and sourcing techniques in modern knowledge environment 
  • Business etiquettes and professional soft skills: Training and exposure of professional content needed for academia in business management domain

SDU Former Coordinators

Prof. Ravi DissanayakeMay 2014 - June 2015
Prof. Nalaka WickramasingheJuly 2015 - July 2018
Dr D. U. MohanJuly 2018 - December 2020
Pro. Susima WeligamageJanuary 2021 - January 2023