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by Elmo Leonard

The World Human Resource Congress is scheduled to be held from May 29 to June 1 in Singapore, and the Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (IPM), being the immediate past president of the Asia Pacific Federation of Human Resources Management will play the role of country ambassador to promote this event.

The forum will be the most important HR conference in the world with renowned speakers making their presentations on current HR issues, president, IPM Sri Lanka, Daya Bollegala said. He called upon local organisations to nominate their HR personnel for this event, intended to be a learning experience at an IPM conducted, CEOs Forum, held last week.

IPM Sri Lanka, which began in 1959 and received state recognition in 1976 has grown to be a locally and internationally recognised and accepted 'centre for excellence' for education, training and professional development in the field of human resource management, he said.

The HR practitioner today, does not deal with money, material and machinery, but with living resources, which could be trained and developed to enhance the productivity of the organisation, Bollegala said.

In the past, the role of HR manager focused on terms and conditions of employment, ensuring that employees were hired, trained, paid and supported. In contrast, the demands in organisations prevailing today have dramatically redefined the traditional terms and conditions, Bollegala said.

Technological advancement has made the world a global village, bearing growing pressure for change with high customer and investor expectations. Today's demands leads the world to judge human resources by how it adds value to the product and services of the organisation, Bollegala said.

Over the past four decades, IPM had been conducting study programs at different levels ranging from foundation courses of study, to IPM professional qualifications in human resources management. IPM had conducted seminars, workshops and conferences to enhance the knowledge of HR practitioners. IPM had taken steps to revise the course content of the study programs positively viewing the market conditions, the speaker said.

IPM will in the near future introduce a certificate program in counselling and a diploma program in training and development.

It had been observed that there are students who were keen on learning HR but, were unable to attend study classes due to various reasons. To cater to the needs of such students, IPM had designed a certificate level distance learning program in human resources management, Bollegala said.

IPM now offers customerised, tailor made short duration training programs to meet the needs of organisations, whilst continuing its traditional role of running a training centre for the discipline of HR.

This, with the understanding that IPM has a corporate social responsibility to fulfil, towards the society, the IPM president said.

When the Asian tsunami hit in December 2004, there were local and international organisations to support the affected people, providing things of material value, but, there were very few organisations and persons who were able to console depressed people.

Thus, IPM had held workshops to train the trainers on counselling, Bollegala said. IPM, offered 10 scholarships to the best students who were successful at the GCE 'A' level examination and from this year, would be increased to 20 scholarships.

IPM was willing to launch a leadership skills development program for school prefects at district level, with the permission of the Ministry of Education, he said.

IPM has taken its human resources development to the grassroots, and sees the need to educate three-wheel-drivers on the value of human life, road discipline and prevention of accidents.

Thus, a seminar in association with the Sri Lanka Police and medical officers, is planned.

IPM will shortly commence the construction of a seven-storey building, by the side of its existing five-storey building at Vijaya Kumaratunga Mawatha, Colombo 5.

When construction is completed, IPM will be able to provide enhanced facilities to its students, members and the public who continue to receive its services. IPM's job placement centre which now caters to provide job opportunities for HR related assignments will open the doors for other management areas, Bollegala said.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.