Long before man evolved, the early being was trained by their elders and leaders on the art of survival. They trained by instinct. Experiences have instilled these instincts in them. The training was based entirely on instincts based on experiences. In fact, the whole process was based on experiences.

As the world advanced the teaching and training became more and more elaborate. In addition to various theories, teachers trained their disciples by practices. The Lord Buddha changed the whole concept of training by making a dramatic change in the art of teaching. The Buddha did this by teaching one to train one's mind to learn and to see what is right and wrong. The Buddha knew that the mind was supreme and led everything. To the less intelligent, He shared His many experiences, from even past lives and taught them to learn from those experiences.

Even the modern teaching, of course, is based on past experiences of others - be it science, art, history or whatever. But the irony is that, the modern teacher has so much to teach and the modern day pupil or student has so much to learn, both have ignored the fact. In fact the whole world seems to have forgotten or ignored the importance of this fact. The modern world, so sophisticated and so advanced is still struggling to create artificial intelligence, or, a thinking computer: in other words, a computer able to think like a man. A man's thinking is based on what he has learned and more importantly, on his experiences. A computer can be fed with knowledge by feeding in books and books on various subjects. But experiences! Can a computer be fed with trillions or zillions of experiences of a man? Difficult. Very difficult.

In the modern world, be it an individual - a student, a professional, a businessman or and artist - or organizations and companies, face a stiff challenge - Competition. Competition in modern world is so fierce that to emerge and surge forward these organizations and companies need an Extra Edge. This 'Edge' which, seems to have been eluding us in the recent past, is none other than learning from the experiences: in other words, experiential learning.

At wild Drift Ltd., an Outdoor Adventure Training Company - a joint venture of Anuruddha Bandara and Rukmal De Silva - they know that this cannot be achieved just by learning from the past experiences. The idea is to train one's mind to learn from the experiences. They also know that attaining this is very difficult and, to attain this, they have to do something more. They believe in the Lord Buddha's saying that, "Loss of wisdoms is the greatest loss and the increase of wisdom is the greatest gain!". How does one explain wisdom? The Oxfords dictionary says that, it is the possession of experience and knowledge coupled with the power of applying then critically and practically. This is the key. Give an experience and the knowledge and ability to apply it practically. It is in other words giving the wisdom of experiential learning. A group of people put together has different experiences and attitudes. This has been a stumbling block met by companies and trainers alike. This had to be overcome. Overcome this, they at wild Drift have, quite easily in a unique fashion. Instead of teaching on past experiences, they put their trainees together through adventurous tests creating common experiences. These outdoor experiences mixed with adventure give the trainees a sense of excitement, thrill and enjoyment, creating a desire to learn more and easily. They have taken the concepts spelt out by the long-standing researchers' training themes on them. Their background coupled with the knowledge imparted by these long standing researchers and the ability to present it to any person at any level in a company or an organization has made them unique and has given them the edge. This uniqueness and the edge, brought them many an accolade. The best so far being the award they have received from Junior Chamber International. During the 2001 International Convention that was held in Barcelona in last November, Junior Chamber International decided that the Wild Drift, training received by the members of Junior Chamber Sri Lanka as the Best Training received by any of their clubs in the world in 2001. It is estimated that, per annum approximately 20,000 training programmes are held in this huge organization.

The present day Sri Lanka is experiencing a very dangerous trend. The student unrest, which is very prominent in the universities, is gradually seeping into schools too. Why do these students and pupils bent so easily and eagerly towards these nefarious activities? They are led by people with various ulterior motives. How can these students and pupils be so easily led towards these activities? Because, regardless of their background, social standing, knowledge or training in various fields, discipline etc, they lack, a sense of value - value of the other people's feelings, a sense of responsibility, life's experiences and a sense of the way -each person has his or her own dream but has no idea or plan as to how to get there. Most importantly, they lack the leadership qualities. As such, instead of leading they allow themselves to be led.

While various people in various fields, are only beginning to think about this situation and are groping in the dark trying to find a way - how to and where to start rectifying this situation, a group of old boys of one the leading schools in island, or perhaps, the leading school has set an example to all the others. The school is none other than the Royal College and group of old boys is the Royal College Group of '87. Realizing that, the best way is to start from the students themselves, they knew they had to train the College Prefects - the student leaders themselves, to lead the rest of the students to follow the right path. They consulted the two leading trainers in the country; old Royalists themselves. Anuruddha Bandara and Rukmal de Silva are the partners of the Wild Drift Outdoor Adventure Training Company, considered the best in the Island. After a series of discussions with old boys and student leaders, they came up with the ideal training programme for these student leaders and named it "The Wild Drift Leadership Camp for Royal College Prefects Council".

This training programme was designed to suit the shaping up and sharpening of the leadership qualities in these prefects. The main objectives suited to cater to these needs were carefully selected can be listed as:-

• Sharing a single dream
• Respecting the differences
• Empathetic communication

These objectives were put to them through adventurous tests creating many experiences and they were taught to practice these objectives as leaders. This project was organized and co-sponsored by the Royal College Group of '87 while the other co-sponsors were the Wild Drift themselves.