[Business Education]

AAC to produce aviation industry graduates

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The Australian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Dr. Greg French congratulated the Asian Aviation Centre (AAC) for having entered into arrangements with strong international partners, Kingston University of UK and Australia’s Batman Institute of Technical and Further Education which has enabled the AAC to offer a range of courses that are attuned to the Aviation industry in Sri Lanka while making AAC graduates ready to take on the world.

Dr. French who was the Chief Guest at the awards ceremony of the Asian Aviation Centre held at the BMICH recently pointed out that strong, internationally-recognized qualifications in the aviation industry are crucial to economic development, and the Asian Aviation centre is promoting strong aviation standards.

It is playing a vital role in Sri Lanka’s economic development and in the enhancement of Sri Lanka’s trade and investment links with its international partners, including, Australia and the UK”.

He stated that former students of AAC working with Bridport Aviation UK are successfully producing high quality and competitive air freight products in their factory for export around the world and they are contributing significantly to enhance Sri Lanka’s competitiveness.

The Acting Director General and CEO Civil Aviation Authority Parakrama Dissanayake said that rapid growth rates are bringing in a list of new challenges to the entire industry, but coming on top of the list is aviation safety which primarily people, and then equipment. He said some people belongs to the category of super human beings, the kind of Supermen in aviation and the award winners at AAC award ceremony belong to that class.

Dissanayake said that the International Civil Aviation Organisation has a forecast growth in global passenger traffic of 6.5 per cent for 2006 and 6.2 per cent for 2007. The Asia Pacific region is expected to experience continued robust rates of 8.4 per cent for 2006 and 8.3 per cent for 2007 which is well above the world average.

For the period 2002-2015, the Asia Pacific region has the second highest forecast international traffic growth rate of 6.5% annually, out of six regions worldwide, with the Middle East region ranking the highest at 6.8 per cent.

Boeing has estimated that the Asia Pacific region require nearly 8,350 aeroplanes for the next 20 years. Dissanayake said that as such the future belongs to the award winners and requested to make the maximum use of it by identifying the opportunities. Over hundred and forty students received the awards in different fields.

Gayan Jayasekara, Thusitha Wickramasinghe, Dhayan Kulatunga and Chinthaka Bandara were awarded first class degrees.

Lyceum Gampaha, celebrates first birthday

Lyceum International School (LIS), Gampaha which is the sixth member school of the Group of Lyceum International schools was established on September 4, 2006.

The school stands in a beautiful location by the Kandy-Colombo Road, Gampaha.

At its inception, LIS-Gampaha had about 500 pupils on roll. Within a period of even less than one year it has now grown to a full-pledged international school, with a student enrolment exceeding 700 and a staff strength of 80, both academic and administrative staff members as a result of the excellent leadership and untiring efforts of the Founder and Managing Director Mohan Lal Grero, the Director and Co-ordinating Principal, Kumari Grero and the members of the Lyceum team.

Continuing its forward march, the school commences its GCE Ordinary Level (Cambridge and Local) classes on September 3, one day ahead of its first birthday.

Over 35 pupils have already been admitted to the class.

Lyceum-Gampaha, in a short period of time, has proved to be a place where all its children are provided with equal and ample opportunities to discover in themselves their inborn and hidden talents and achieve success in their field of choice while excelling in the academic sphere.

LIS-Gampaha, like all the other Lyceum schools, offers its students a wide range of excellent extra/co-curricular activity opportunities.

They include sports/athletics, cricket, lawn-tennis, basket ball, martial art (Karate), western band, swimming and table tennis. Little maids/friends, girl guiding, cubbing and scouting are also popular and worthwhile activities chosen by many students.

GP

Indian IT training and education market grows at 64 pc

The Indian IT Training and Education market, which is currently dollar 656 million, is growing at a CAGR of 64 per cent.

However, the Indian IT e-learning market, which is currently dollar 122 million, is growing at a CAGR (Compound annual growth rate) of 73 per cent, said Navug Mohnot, CEO of India QAI, while announcing education ventures in this space under the name, Edista.

QAI, the leading process consulting organisation, has decided to foray into this space in order to meet the growing need for IT training and education in the country.

Quoting interesting trends in IT education, he said 29 percent of all IT training is on demand. PTI

CIMA, ICTA sign MoU to promote BPO industry

CIMA (The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) and the ICTA (the Information and Communications Technology Agency of Sri Lanka) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding designed to help foster the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in Sri Lanka.

The future wealth creation for most of the developing world is slated to be through knowledge based industries. Business process outsourcing brings with it not only foreign direct investment but also provides significant opportunities for the creation of a large number of skilled jobs.

CIMA Sri Lanka is a leading membership body that offers an internationally recognised professional qualification in management accountancy. CIMA currently supplies the BPO industry of Sri Lanka with a pool of qualified professionals, all of whom have the expertise and business acumen to help drive the industry forward.

ICTA’s vision is to harness ICT as a lever for economic and social advancement. It is hoped that the potential Sri Lanka has to become the destination of choice for the BPO industry coupled with CIMA facilitating further engagement, that this vision can become a reality.

As part of the MOU, ICTA will work with CIMA to facilitate national interest programmes related to the BPO industry and will also facilitate and partner in CIMA’s BPO Investment Forum to be held in January 2008. ICTA will also provide resource personnel to create awareness within the current CIMA student population to promote the BPO industry and its potential amongst current students.

CIMA will organise joint seminars on issues related to the BPO industry and facilitate engagement with the industry, whilst exploring the possibility of developing soft skills and English training programmes amongst CIMA students. Chief Operating Officer and Director of ICTA Reshan Dewapura said:

“The BPO industry has the potential to transform Sri Lanka into a knowledge based economy and to create significant amounts of employment. We are delighted with this partnership with CIMA and we are confident that together we will be able to achieve great things.”

OpenArc convocation held

The convocation ceremony of the first batch of students, who followed the Post graduate Masters Degree in Project Management jointly conducted by the OpenArc College of International Studies in Sri Lanka with the University of Southern Queensland-Australia, was held recently at Galle Face Hotel, Colombo.

Chairman of the OpenArc College of International Studies Daya Hettiarachchi and Director of International Studies of the University of Southern Queensland-Australia, L. Gibson attended as the chief guests of the ceremony.

The Post graduate Masters Degree in Project Management is the only degree programme that available in Sri Lanka in this particular field. These new degree holders are the first batch of Sri Lanka that obtained such a degree in this field.

As main Sri Lanka’s Companies had introduced project management into their management field there is a growing demand for this. In order to keep the high standard of the management field, the OpenArc had introduced this programme to Sri Lanka.

Having experience with fifteen years in the Information Technology field, the OpenArc is currently conducting courses on software quality assurance, business information systems, information systems security management and software engineering, a press release states.