Vocational training for 100,000 youth

Uditha Kumarasinghe

COLOMBO: The Government through the Vocational and Technical Training Ministry has targeted technical and vocational training to 100,000 unemployed youth by the end of this year.

Annually training institutions affiliated to the Ministry provides technical and vocational training to nearly 70,000 unemployed youth. The Ministry has made arrangements to increase this target up to 100,000 by year end, Vocational and Technical Training Minister Piyasena Gamage told the weekly Cabinet press briefing on Thursday.

From this year, the Ministry has taken a new approach to provide a more systematic vocational and technical training to youth who have failed G.C.E. O/L and A/L examinations or not qualified for university entrance.

"Of the total number of 325,000 students admitted for Year One, only three per cent qualify for higher education. Others got stranded without moving from A/L examination.

One of the major problems is to provide gainful employment to these youth by soliciting their contribution towards economic development," the Minister said.

On President Mahinda Rajapaksa's directive, the Ministry has made arrangements to conduct a countrywide exhibition titled Vo-Tec to provide perfect understanding to youth on the importance of technical and vocational training fields and various job oriented training courses conduct by these training institutions.

The second stage of Vo-Tec technical and trade exhibition will be held at Moneragala technical college premises from September 12 to 16.