Education

USAID Sri Lanka trains work force on employability

Hathoon Sheriffdeen

"We have trained 35160 students islandwide through our training programme under education and skill building within the last three years" Workforce Development Adviser of USAID Sri Lanka, Dr Mark Sorenson said.

He said this project had moulded young people as business creators, innovators and socially responsible and active contributors for the economic growth. This programme is a skill development programme, with training on practical and theoretical works after the school hours.

They found some savings from their parents and generated creative products for sale. These are creative handicrafts made by the efforts of the children at school level, he said. USAID Sri Lanka's educational projects concentrate on the skills demanded by the employers.

Computer literacy, English language skill building, communicational skill developments, creativity, decision-making skills, problem solving, critical thinking, performance orientation, career awareness and entrepreneurship building are the main items that we incorporated in our curricular, he said.

USAID has signed agreements with regard to education programmes to build a developed workforce within the country in the year 2007.

These programmes will mainly target the age group of fifteen to twenty years' by developing their skills. Dr Sorenson said.

These programmes are developed under the project profile of Economic Growth. We studied the needs of public and private sector employment providers to design the curricular of these projects. Dr Sorenson said.

These programmes are mainly made on building relationships within the citizens and local authorities, to work together across ethnic and political boundaries. This will help to identify and implement community improvement projects islandwide, he said.

"We are working on five main programmes to promote employability of youth islandwide". "These programmes are Accelerated Skills Acquisition Programme, United Potential Partnership, English-Computer Based learning, Young Entrepreneurs Sri Lanka and Last Mile Initiatives", he said.

"Our research on employability skill shows that public and private sector employers face hardship in getting skilfull human resources in the country".

"Skills are developed on specified fields highly and it should be spread out to all the fields". Dr. Sorenson said.

Eagle Insurance delivers promise to Eagle Higher Education Scholarship Winners

Eagle Insurance will deliver its promise to the seventh batch of Scholarship winners and will commence providing them with their Eagle Higher Education Scholarship benefits at the ceremony to be held at Trans Asia Hotel on November 30. The students who are now embarking on their Advanced Levels will enjoy the benefits of the scholarship until the completion of their university degree.

Since its inception in 1994, Eagle has consistently rewarded a total of 325 students who have benefited from this scheme and the first batch of Scholarship Winners commenced receiving their scholarship benefit in June 2001. The proud parents and relatives of the Eagle Highfliers will also be among the list of special invitees.

The Eagle Higher Education Scholarship scheme was inaugurated in 1994. At the onset the continuity of this scheme was ensured with the setting-up of a Rs. 10 million trust-fund with Bank of Ceylon as trustee to the fund. This fund has now escalated to the value of Rs. 37 million under the management of Eagle NDB Fund Management Company, a subsidiary of Eagle Insurance.

The Eagle Higher Education Scholarships are awarded to the District winners purely on merit and being a policyholder of Eagle is not a requirement to obtain this scholarship. The students commence receiving the scholarship benefit of Rs. 1,000 monthly, on entry into the Advanced Level class.

This payment continues throughout their university career as well. This monthly sum adds up to a total of Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 84,000 per student depending on the duration of the chosen degree courses.

Those students who choose not to enter university are given a lump sum of Rs. 25,000 as a career starter.

AmCham to sponsor EDEX 2008

The unemployment rate is growing; however, what is worse is that the true potential of a student is being overlooked each day. Education has become a rat race; the destination at the end has become stereotyped and intent only on a single pathway.

Thus automatically people get left behind. The American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka (AmCham) which has joined hands with EDEX and become the strategic partner for EDEX 2008 believes that their vision on empowering Sri Lankan youth has not come to the forefront at a better time.

"There is no doubt Sri Lanka builds a lot of talent but providing them the opportunity to make informed decisions on advancing that talent must also become a priority," said Project Manager AmCham Ransi Dharmasiriwardhana. She added that there should be institutions that guided students or hopefuls to fulfil their potential.

AMCHAM which brings together nearly 300 Sri Lankan and American Companies based in Sri Lanka itself involved in trade, business and investment activities between the two companies.

"We hope the range of companies exhibited will open up avenues for those interested," she said adding that EDEX would provide a chance for people to be aware of what is available and would be able to explore as well.

"For the fifth consecutive year, EDEX is bringing its vision of empowering the Sri Lankan youth to be globally competitive to life and the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka (AMCHAM) supports this vision of the National Higher Education and Careers Exhibition, EDEX 2008," said Dharmasiriwardhana.

"The exhibition's unmatched success has brought the latest avenues in higher education, vocational training as well as career profiling for all students and career professionals.

It is encouraging to see such a dedicated and motivated team working together to make a significant difference for the future of our youth," she said.