The education system world over has been largely disrupted due to the COVID 19 pandemic. While many countries have swiftly embraced technology to ensure continuous delivery of education, one cannot deny this Pandemic also reveals the vulnerabilities and inequities in education in many developing countries. As per the ‘policy brief on Education during COVID-19 and beyond’ issued by the United Nations (in August 2020), closures of schools and other learning spaces have impacted 94 per cent of the world’s student population, up to 99 per cent in low and lower-middle income countries. The policy brief also provides positives on how countries embraced innovative approaches in support of education and training continuity via distance learning solutions.
Colombo Times spoke to Ms Anju De Alwis, Managing Director of Ultimate Access, on her experience in providing innovative corporate and higher education courses for more than a decade, the impact stemming from the Pandemic, the evolving role of finance professionals and much more.
Ms De Alwis is a C-Suite executive with both finance and Information technology experience in industries such as audit, consulting, manufacturing, telecommunication, media, oil/gas, airline and education. She is an Australian, living and working in the UAE.
Ms De Alwis is a Doctoral candidate USQ Australia in Blockchain in Education. She has a MBA from Manchester Business School. She is a FCMA – Chartered Institute of Management Accountants CIMA – UK and Certified Global Management Accountants CGMA. She is a CPA – Australia and a member of Chartered Institute of Marketing CIM – UK. She plays strategic roles in many professional bodies. She is a CIMA Council Member and a Member of the Association MESANA regional advisory panel. She is also a Member of Thought Leadership & Business Ethics Committee of the Association. She is member of Ethics and Professional Standards Centre of Excellence, CPA Australia
As a person who has used technology driven learning models for many years Ms De Alwis believes that the pandemic has had both positive and negative effects in the education industry. The negative impact is that for most education institutions the infrastructure and the people (teachers, academic staff, support staff, students and parents) were, like most of the world, unprepared with the impact affecting mostly the students. There were many education institutions that could not afford or implement the change of infrastructure required for them to go online with some students not being able to afford the necessary IT devices and internet charges.
She further added, “the positive aspect of this pandemic is that it has highlighted the possibility, with a change of mindset, for students to access a greater variety of now available teachers from any part of the world. They can also enroll in any subject or qualification that they wish to do as long as they have the necessary IT devices, internet and entry requirements”.
Provision of educational and professional studies during the Pandemic.
Drawing from her experience in providing professional studies in studies in many foreign jurisdictions, Ms. De Alwis shared her thoughts on provision of educational and professional studies during the Pandemic. “Our company – Ultimate Access, is an approved tuition provider for both CIMA (UK) and CPA Australia qualifications who have been very proactive to work with us to provide solutions to students during this time. An example of this was enabling students to take exams at home instead of attending a test centre – this was done with newly developed remote proctoring or remote invigilating. We have seen an increase in the number of students taking advantage of their own downtime to learn these professional qualifications as well as an increase in our other short courses that focus on technology skills to help prepare students for the post pandemic uncertainties”.
She further added that, “There are many Chartered Accountants who have qualified with their local body and opt to take on international professional qualifications such as CIMA(UK) and CPA Australia. This is mainly due to them wanting to belong to an international professional accountancy body to upskilling their professional education and widen their employability reach”.
Speaking about the journey with Ultimate Access, Ms De Alwis reminisces “Our company for the last decade has been operating online. We have students from different parts of the world that access our courses remotely and we have an amazing lecturer panel / support team that work with us also from different parts of the world. This pandemic did not have such a negative impact on our operational activities, but it has focused a positive light to the advantages of mainstream online learning. There are so many new opportunities that exist now for the education sector to serve any markets without boundaries and reap online resources from any part of the world day or night”.
Evolving role of a finance professional
In response to a query on the current demand for finance professionals she explains that, “Finance professionals with the right skills sets will be very much in demand more than ever and will need to have technology skills to help take their companies to a different strategic level in the near future”.
Although one may opine that the current environment can be overwhelming for young professionals, she explains that “there is a considerable amount of opportunity for young professionals with the right skills sets. These skills are; critical thinking, entrepreneurial mindset training, technology skills, communication skills – to name just a few. The finance professional needs to be a value creator in other words. He/She should gain an entrepreneurial mindset of creating more than one income stream for their company or as an individual”.
She further added that “many SMEs require assistance in managing their finances and this is a great opportunity for finance professionals. Likewise, there are many businesses that require help in digital transformation and finance literacy – if you have the right skill set this again is a great opportunity to explore. I like to provide examples from some of our students. Many students have created online ecommerce businesses and only used Instagram to promote their products. One of our students has created a FinTech company and built an application to understand consumer behavior. Some students have gone into creating finance literacy programs that will enhance the knowledge of a community on stock markets. A great resource to get entrepreneurial ideas is The side hustle school for more examples”.
Accessibility and Empowerment
Accessibility and Empowerment are the key components to improve education/professional studies and on an ongoing basis says Anju De Alwis responding to a question on key areas the policy makers in Sri Lanka should focus on in relation to improving the delivery of education. She explained “These are the key components to improve education/professional studies and on an ongoing basis. The Internet and computers need to be made available to all (similar to that of free education that is provided in Sri Lanka). This can be achieved not only via government but through a PPP (public private partnership) arrangement. This will enable students to access courses and lecturers from all parts of the world (including Sri Lanka) that are available online. We all know that currently many people have lost jobs and companies are facing many challenges and rethinking their business models including HR models. Individuals need to be entrepreneurs and consider this new gig economy too and consider other entrepreneurial opportunities using technology as an enabler. This does not happen overnight, however having access to the internet and computers will enable the populous to explore new ideas and opportunities”.
Learnings from the Pandemic
In summing up the key learnings from the Pandemic she explains “I would first like to quote Alvin Toffler – ‘Learn, Unlearn and Relearn’. It has become quite apparent that we need to focus on some key areas that are very important to us, such as health and wellbeing and the importance of relationships. It is also important to be positive and focus on growth. Growth comes through education. Currently we need to embrace the fact that the four year degree is not the end of your education, it is certainly just the beginning of a 50 or 60 years of learning that is ahead of you. This is where education will play an important role”.
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Interviewed and compiled by Rifka Ziyard, Director at KPMG. She is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK, Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), Fellow member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Taxation, MBA and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Colombo.
