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| Wednesday, 1 September 2004 |
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by Manjula Fernando A total of 41,305 graduates have been selected for the special orientation program expected to attune them with the requirements of the State sector under the Government's Graduate Employment Scheme. Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama at a media briefing said yesterday that all graduates who applied for the scheme will undergo this three-month full-time preliminary training. "The screening for proof of unemployment will be carried out subsequent to this program to prevent unnecessary delays," the Minister told a news briefing. The three month crash course jointly coordinated by the National Institute of Education (NIE) and the National Youth Services Council (NYSC) for the first batch of 17,023 unemployed graduates who are to receive state sector jobs, will begin tomorrow. Dr. Amunugama said this preliminary training is expected to attune them with the general requirements of the state sector and a more formal training will follow once they are posted to the relevant institutions. "Their affidavits will be scrutinised before absorption into the permanent cadre," the Minister explained, adding that the actual figure of unemployed graduates has to be a lot less than this figure. The modules of the crash course include public relations and communication skills, spiritual development, personality development, rules and procedure of public service. "There are between 25,000 to 30,000 vacancies in the state sector. "State institutions have been requested to tender their proposals if they need additional cadres before the next year's budget," the Minister said adding they were prepared to be flexible to accommodate all unemployed graduates in the State sector, as pledged by the UPFA during the April election. He stressed that all graduates will receive permanent posts in state institutions under the scheme and the lion's share, between 10,000 to 12,000, will be accommodated by the Education Ministry as teachers. Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Tara De Mel said those who opt for the education service will be trained subject-wise prior to their postings to schools. Dr. De Mel said they needed teachers for English, IT, Aesthetics and special education. "The President has ordered that vacancies in all schools, with priority for National and Navodya schools be filled before the end of this year. We hope to achieve that target under this program," she explained. The Finance Ministry will publish the 24,287 names of graduates selected under the second batch in today's Dinamina. This will increase the total number of graduates selected for training to 41,305. Training for the second batch will follow within two to three months. Following the training period the graduates will have to re-apply for specific areas they wish to be employed in. "We hope to accommodate their expectations as much as we can," the Finance Minister said. NIE Director General Prof. Jagath Wickremasinghe said they were deploying 1743 Sinhala medium and 125 Tamil medium trainers to conduct sessions in 440 training centres islandwide, covering 23 districts excluding Kilinochchi and Vavuniya. The graduates in these two districts have been registered at their nearest centre. |
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