Orange Electric honours electricians

Orange Electric celebrated the 200th Electrician meet of its electrician's society by felicitating its best electricians at a function held recently at the Galadari hotel.

Partnerships are vital in any sphere for progress while great partnerships enhance and uplift both parties.

The partnership between Orange Electric and the members of the electrician's society is such. Founded in 2003 based on the vision of the company's Managing Director Kushan Kodituwakku it functioned with the mandate to uplift this community from being merely an acquired skill to a duly recognized profession, that is backed with professional training, new product knowledge and certification. Electricity is a powerful source of energy but could be a life taker in the hands of the inexperienced.

The electricians whose services are sought by the public are not professionally qualified but trained on the job with little value and recognition being given to this trade.

Thus the organisation sought to add value to this trade by assisting in the upgrading of skill levels among this group. The Orange Electric Electrician Society was the 1st organised structure to be started by a company for this community in Sri Lanka. The success of this was soon followed by others.

The society also facilitates its members financially by implementing a scheme that rewards electricians with points for loyalty that can be en-cashed at any future date by the members. This scheme stands in as a valuable financial resource to members who generally are a community that is excluded from any formal structured saving scheme like EPF/ETF. To date the electrician fund stands at approximately 20 million.

Over the six years the membership of the club has grown to 12,000 members and the club has conducted 200 training meets across the island including the North and the East even during the trouble times.

These meetings are used as forums to impart technical competency, obtain feedback on new product concepts and introduce members to new technology and upgrade technical marketing knowledge.

Certification of electricians through NAITA and the German HEND is an ongoing program for those members who require formal certification for foreign employment opportunities and bettering their current standing. The club also sponsored and distributed the Electricians handbook written by Jayawilal Udapola among its members.

Taking the club to the next level the CEO Kamil Hussain of Orange Electric said, "Upgrading and moving with the times is important to maintain our leadership position in the market and therefore we have drawn up plans for the future that would take our electrician club to the next level. We will enhance the facilities of our club members by providing a means for them to increase their customer base by generating new customer contact through an Electrician on call Service.

This service will also address a latent market need. In addition the company intends working closely with the Ministry of Vocational Training to provide a more comprehensive and wider reaching training service to this valuable community which the company owes part of its success in becoming Sri Lanka's brand leader in electrical accessories. This is a significant achievement for a fully owned Sri Lankan company that strives to show case Sri Lankan talent to world."