Archives

First one in Agalawatte : Job centres to spring up islandwide

by Chamikara Weerasinghe

In keeping with Employment and Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe's draft national job policy, job centres will be set up throughout the country to find employment for youth next year.

Deputy Labour Commissioner D. Vitanage Bandulasena said, that steps would be taken to set up centres at divisional and provincial labour secretariats in all districts. " The Ministry of Employment and Labour has decided to establish these centres with a view to secure an effective and innovative job delivery network across the country as encouraged in the seventh initiative of the draft national job policy," he said. "Also, the centres will also come up at various branch offices of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau," he added.

Initially, the ministry plans to establish these centres on a provincial basis so as to ensure that the system will have countrywide coverage, according to senior Labour Ministry sources. This will also include North and Eastern Provinces of the country.

The first job centre will come up in Agalawatte area in the Kalutara district, followed by two centres in Colombo and Gampaha districts.

"The centres are expected to provide a placement service for local and foreign jobs from private companies, government institutions or private individuals by way of using information technology," Labour Deputy Commissioner Badulasena said.

Explaining the envisioned plan behind the centres, he said "the idea is to provide jobs for those who need them on a broad perspective without any political favouritism."

Meanwhile, senior government sources pointed out that programme involving job centres is given priority in the government agenda for 2003, as it has been declared by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as "The year of employment."

A complete computerised data of job seekers will be maintained at the centres. The centres will find suitable jobs for them through a comprehensive computer network," he said. Also, the Ministry plans to introduce foreign language units at the centres to conduct English language classes for the benefit of youth, sources said.

Further, the Employment and Labour Ministry has reached an agreement with Vocational Training Ministry to give necessary training at 960 vocational training centres in the country.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager