Young entrepreneurs feted with prestigious awards
Tamara Nissanka
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AWARDS: Chairman of ANCL; Bandula Padmakumara, President, YESL;
Patrick Amarasinghe, CEO of YESL; Premasiri Weliwita and Nimesha
De Silva of Museaus College with the Most Outstanding Young
Entrepreneur ‘07 Award. Picture by Sumanachandra Ariyawansa
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The 10th Annual Award ceremony of the Young Entrepreneurs of Sri
Lanka (YESL) was held yesterday at the BMICH.
YESL is a non-profit company incorporated as a Member Nation
Franchise Holder of Junior Achievement Worldwide. The organization is
aimed at educating school children on entrepreneurship including
business economics, finance, marketing and human resource management.
The programme is approved by the Ministry of Education, and is funded
by business community, foundations and individuals. YESL conducts
business programmes from grade one to 13 at elementary, middle and high
school levels, in three schools in Sri Lanka.
Addressing the gathering, Chief Executive Officer, YESL, Premasiri
Weliwita said YESL is improving at a remarkable growth strategy. He said
that the organisation has expanded in terms of numbers, variety of
programmes and in quality.
Weliwita emphasised the need to view the YESL programme as an
initiative to groom the youth into successful entrepreneurs in the
future, for the betterment of the country.
YESL has received a special grant to spread the programme to the
Nothern Province schools. President of YESL, Patrick Amarasinghe said
that the organisation was founded in 1998 with programmes being
conducted in nine schools. The programme has currently reached 35,000
students in 35 schools.
Amarasinghe said that the programme would serve 10 per cent of the
Sri Lankan school population in the near future.
Director of Economic Growth, USAID, Richard Edwards highlighted the
country's urgent requirement of quality employees in order to achieve
success in business.
He further commended the 12 per cent growth rate in YESL participant
studentship over the last year.
The culmination of the event was marked by the presentation of awards
to the winners of 2007. The Most Outstanding Young Girl Entrepreneur of
the Year was M.A.K Mahesha Kalyani of Mahiyanganaya National School. The
Most Outstanding Young Boy Entrepreneur was Suan Fernando of Ananda
College, Colombo was presented with the Patrick Amarasinghe Award.
The Most Outstanding Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007, Nimesha De
Silva of Museaus College, Colombo, was honoured with the Daily News
Award, presented by Chairman of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon
Limited (ANCL), Bandula Padmakumara. |
