Alumni profile: Adrian Perera, Sri Lanka

With ABE, Adrian overcame the setback of disappointing exam results which stopped him from going straight to university.  He progressed through the ABE levels and went straight to the final year of a BA with the University of Greenwich.  Here, he talks about how his ABE studies have filled him with a passion for education.

I’m from a suburb of Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). I’m the youngest in my family.  I have studied hard always and was very disappointed when my OL, A Level grades did not reflect the amount of work that I had put in. I had always dreamt of going to university and I began to see that dream crashing down around me as I knew that my grades were not sufficient  to get me the place that I wanted.

I then chose to study the ABE qualification was because of the subject content and exam structure.  It was very helpful for me to learn every learning outcome in each module. I thoroughly enjoyed the International Business Case study which gave me  an insight into to how an organisation’s operations  are conducted.

I mainly studied the ABE qualification through self-study, it was the approach I enjoyed the most since it made me study and explore around the subject. I also attended few classes at Oxford College and London Business School in Colombo.

Awareness of ABE is growing  in my country especially in urbanised cities like Colombo and Kandy. There are people from many areas coming to study the qualification. Additionally there is also an ABE Alumni event held annually which helps people meet and build network opportunities.

After completion of the ABE Graduate Diploma I gained access to the final year of the BA(Hons) International Business programme specialising in Economics with University of Greenwich through VHEC in my country.

As a business student ABE provides a strong foundation for all the functional areas of a business starting from Human Resources, Marketing, Corporate Finance and Managerial Accounting through to Project Management.  I chose to study through them because ABE is globally recognised and has very high standards. It is an ideal qualification to have in today's dynamic environment.

ABE taught me to think analytically.  I gained knowledge from reading recommended text books and being able to apply what I study into real world examples which is very useful. It also taught me to pay attention to detail like the command words which are asked in questions.

My longer term plan is to get into lecturing which I have a passion for and also work for an organisation in a functional role such as human resources. I am even considering starting my own venture after another five to six years to provide consultancy services while continuing teaching and lecturing which helps me to share my knowledge with different people around the world.