Women in Logistics and Transport Sri Lanka (CILT WiLAT) launched its inaugural Mentoring Program, Ignite, on the 3rd November, 2014 at the Kingsbury Hotel Colombo. The chairperson of the event was Dr Dorathy Chan, the President CILT International and the former Transport Commissioner of Hong Kong.
Purpose of Ignite, as the WiLAT Chairperson Gayani de Alwis explained in her welcoming address, is to mentor young females who are entering the transport and logistics field in Sri Lanka, and create awareness, develop networking and support their professional development. Being a male-dominated industry, transport and logistics in Sri Lanka is heavily under-represented by women. Through Ignite, WiLAT hopes to empower and reduce the industry-wide gender imbalance, in line with its Mission.
Dr Dorathy Chan also addressed the gathering of mentors and mentees, “It’s a personal development relationship in which a more experienced or knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. It’s a powerful development and empowerment tool for individuals to progress in their careers.” She also praised WiLAT Sri Lanka for being the first one out of 15 global WiLATs to launch the mentoring program.
In this mentoring program, mentors and mentees were chosen from a list and matched through a formal procedure according to their career paths, talents or interests. The number of mentees had been restricted to 40 slots on a first come first served basis.
The mentors of Ignite were senior WiLAT members with experience in the transport and logistics field, as well as academic of professional qualification holders in senior positions in the industry or attached to an academic or professional organization. A total of 15 mentors representing shipping, aviation, road transport, and logistics and supply chain were willing to share their experiences and guide a future generation of women in the field.
Participants, or the mentees, of the event were young women involved in the logistics and transport industry; undergraduates from University of Moratuwa, University of Colombo, Kotalawala Defence University and CINEC Maritime Campus, as well as industry aspirants who were interested in finding a mentor to pursue their career goals in the industry.
As the next step to Ignite mentoring program, WiLAT organized a talk by Ms Ramani Samarasundera, Marketing Director of Unilever Sri Lanka on “Effective Mentoring Relationships” which was held on 5th December at the National Chamber of Commerce. This gave an opportunity to the mentees to learn how to maintain a good mentoring relationship that would go beyond their career advancement and to meet with their mentor as well.
The Women in Logistics and Transport forum in Sri Lanka was formed in 2013 by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Sri Lanka to encourage the representation of women in the transport and logistics industry and to address the wide gender imbalance. WiLAT provides a forum for women engaged in the industry to network and give opportunities for career advancement to empower them in becoming leading professionals in the industry.
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