Colombo (Sri Lanka) & Manchester (UK) 29/06/2021 (immediate release):
Since founding of XpressJobs 5 years ago, the company has led the charge in introducing Recruitment Technology (Rec Tech) to the Sri Lankan hiring sector. Today, XpressJobs is well recognised as a leader in the Sri Lankan recruitment market, serving the whole of the country and not just Colombo and the main cities. To date, 4,500 companies have advertised 60,000 jobs. XpressJobs is used by over 442,210 candidates who have submitted 1.8 million job applications to date.
Among the new technology innovations brought to the Sri Lankan recruitment market by XpressJobs include smart-filtering, application tracking, CV less hiring, online timed quiz and video job adverts. In fact, thanks to these innovations, XpressJobs have become the trend setter for recruitment technology in Sri Lanka.
SkilledUp Life, an initiative by Techcelerate (a UK tech startup) was launched on 1st Aug 2020, as a direct result of Covid-19. The pandemic caused immense difficulties to tech startups in 2020. Investors withheld capital. Customers stopped buying. At the same time, job market dried up. Technology advancements continued to reduce worldwide job opportunities.
SkilledUp Life is developing a two sided marketplace, with one side offering endless opportunities for anyone to gain new experience and skills by volunteering their time, and on the other side, unlimited volunteer talent for early stage tech startups. SkilledUp Life is used by over 650 volunteers from over 40 countries including Sri Lanka.
SkilledUp Life is open to anyone aged 18 years and over. It’s ideal for young graduates looking to gain experience and skills to land their first job to experienced individuals who are employed currently but interested in broadening their skills to further their career or change the career path. SkilledUp Life is free to use and can be returned to when upskilling is required by anyone.
SkilledUp Life is also ideal for Corporates who want to be agile and innovative yet struggle due to internal bureaucracy. Corporates can send their employees to gain startups skills which could kick start real innovation.
The partnership allows candidates who lack sufficient experience and skills to land a job via XpressJobs, to be helped by SkilledUp Life. Once job seekers have gained experience and skills via SkilledUp Life, they return to XpressJobs to land their next job. Same will work for those seeking a career change.
Dr.Oshadie Korale, Chief Operating Officer of XpressJobs commented,
“When we founded XpressJobs back in 2015, recruitment in Sri Lanka was managed the old-fashioned way of using spreadsheets and emails. It was a highly time consuming cumbersome process. We wanted to make this process simpler. This led us to found and develop XpressJobs.”
“Whilst we have achieved significant success helping over 4500 companies, we were unable to help a large number of candidates due to their lack of experience and skills. When we first heard about SkilledUp Life, we knew we found a partner who could address this challenge”
“As we grow, I feel that our duty of care should extend beyond just helping companies to find the right talent. We should go beyond our way to help those who are not succeeding. Once again, I feel we have a real opportunity to make a significant difference to the Sri Lankan job market. I’m excited about the opportunities that would present through this partnership with UK’s SkilledUp Life for Sri Lankans.
“This partnership will give Sri Lankans an exclusive and unparalleled opportunity to gain experience and skills by working with cutting edge British, American and other foreign companies, thus dramatically improving and modernising the country’s overall skill base, and not just the individuals taking part.”
Dr. Korale came across SkilledUp Life, when the business advertised on XpressJobs to find a candidate to manage it’s growing community of volunteers and early stage tech startups.
Mr. Manoj Ranaweera, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SkilledUp Life commented,
“We hired our Head of Community from XpressJobs. During the application process, we came across a large number of candidates who had the potential and especially the education qualifications, but was automatically filtered out due to not having the level of experience and skills we were looking for.”
“It didn’t take us long to reach out to the senior management of XpressJobs to discuss a potential partnership where we could help and bring new experience and skills to those candidates who lacked them.”
“To gain experience and skills, a volunteer only needs four things: the desire to improve his or her chances, spare time, a computer and access to the Internet. It’s as simple as that. Once registered and the profile is fully completed, anyone can apply to any of the volunteer opportunities with a click of a button. Opportunities ranges from social media marketing, designing and developing world class software applications to becoming a data scientist.”
“The IT sector is growing rapidly. It can be quite confusing to decide which area to focus from testing software applications to maintaining infrastructure for graduates. With Skilledup Life, you can try different opportunities to find a discipline you find passionate about.”
“I am excited about the prospect of working with a passionate team at XpressJobs who wants to change Sri Lankan job market for the better.”
The Partnership has already started to bear fruit. Over 30 candidates from XpressJobs have already signed up to SkilledUp Life to seek experience and skills. To sign up, visit https://skilledup.life