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by Shirajiv Sirimane

The Institute of Printing and Graphics of Sri Lanka Ltd. (Ingrin) has decided to accommodate foreign students for their courses in the future.

The Chairman of Ingrin Ananda E. Wickremeratne said that they will accept applications from foreign students in the region in the next three years. He said that with their foreign partners Ingrin foundation of the Netherlands they would be installing an Image Setter at the premises soon.

"We are targeting school-leavers and employees who are attached to the printing and design field to attend our courses."

Mr. Wickremeratne said that the institute together with their foreign partners have drawn up plans for the next three years. "We are hoping to introduce a newsletter to gain publicity about our courses and we will develop a web site to enable Internet users to register on line."

The Chairman said that they are also making plans to open branches in the outstations and are also hoping to tie up with the European Printing School to introduce more courses.

He said that the institute has also realised the demand for English in Sri Lanka's printing and packaging sector and has decided to introduce service oriented courses in English. "We have the capacity and the staff to have many more courses but we do not want to compromise on quality and therefore would conduct only a limited number of courses in the future as well."

"The Institute has trained around 11,000 students so far which include school-leavers and persons who are already engaged in the printing and graphic industry."

The Chairman said that most of their courses are 'certificate' oriented and added that in future they will have more 'Diploma' awarding courses and would also explore the possibility of conducting a course which would give 'master' certification.

The institute was established in 1994 at a cost of Rs. 85 million as a joint venture between Ingrin Foundation of the Netherlands, Export Development Board, Printers Association of Sri Lanka, International Advertisers Association and the Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging mainly to cater to the demand of skilled and professional personnel for the printing, packaging and graphic industry of Sri Lanka.

The total foreign exchange cost, including expatriate consultancy, training staff of the Ingrin Institute of Printing and Graphics Sri Lanka Ltd, and setting up of training courses, is funded by the Ingrin foundation of the Netherlands.

The Director of Ingrin Foundation Netherlands, with Dr. Robert Van Weldam was in Sri Lanka last week on a consultancy tour to evaluate their Sri Lanka Branch. He said Sri Lanka's standard of Printing has improved fast. He said that the Netherlands is world famous for printing and designing and have won several world awards in this field. "We are aware of the capabilities of the Sri Lankans and this is why we opened our only foreign branch in Colombo."

He said that Sri Lankans can pick-up the finer points of the field very soon."Your people have creative minds and need more guidance by this kind of institutions."

He said that their Association is a non governmental organisation and is dedicated to raise the world standard of printing. "We are very happy about the progress in Sri Lanka. This has inspired us to open one of our branches in Indonesia last week. We have plans to open more branches in the Philippines and West Africa."

He said that his mission in Sri Lanka is to formulate a plan with the Sri Lankan institute for the next three years.

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