Poor skills deprive Lankan youth 200,000 foreign jobs

Shirajiv Sirimane

‘Over 200,000 foreign employment opportunities that come Sri Lanka’s way are wasted since Lankan youth do not have the skills to fulfill the requirements’, said Chairman EDEX, Kamal Abeysinghe.

Speaking at the 5th EDEX launch last night he said that youth should be guided to meet these global employment opportunities. “Our youths are talented and skilful and this is proven when they work overseas,” he said. The EDEX is aimed at creating opportunities for youth both locally and globally.

Through the USAID programme they are also hoping to invite North East students to participate for the event.

Consisting of two exhibitions, EDEX 2008, The National Higher Education and Careers Expo will be held at the Sirimavo Bandaranaiake International Exhibition Centre (BMICH) Colombo on from 18 to 20 January 2008. The secondary event will take place at Queens Hotel, Kandy on 22 and January.

The Royal College Union (RCU) has been instrumental in identifying the National need of a single platform providing Higher Education and Career guidance opportunities for the Sri Lankan youth. Having conceptualised EDEX to cater to this need, RCU launched the first ever EDEX in the year 2004 as one of their social responsibility projects.

The inaugural event itself was a success beyond expectations of all stakeholders. Being a strong believer and practitioner of continuous improvement, the EDEX Committee challenged itself to organise a bigger better event year-on-year adding layers of value constantly.

Today, EDEX has proved to be the most comprehensive Higher Education and Careers EXPO in the country. EDEX 2007, which was held in January this year, attracted more than 75,000 visitors from the length and the breath of the country.

The Presidential Secretariat, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour Relations and Man Power, Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training individually endorsed this event in recognition of the objectives and the close alignment of the Vision of EDEX with the government.

Arrangements have also been made for foreign missions to be present throughout the exhibition.

The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon is the Media sponsor for the event.

EDEX is present on the web through www.edex.lk.