USAID boosts job opportunities for Eastern youth

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is constructing four vocational schools in tsunami-affected Ampara and Batticaloa districts as part of USAID's Sri Lanka Tsunami Reconstruction Programme.

This week marked the official opening of the schools in Ninthavur and Kaluwanchikudy in the presence of Minister of Vocational and Technical Training P. Gamage, Chief Minister to the Eastern Province S. Chanthirakanthan, Minister of Water Supply and Drainage A. Athaulla, and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert O. Blake.

The two centres are truly unique. The Kaluwanchikudy Vocational Training Centre will specialise in information technology and is part of a larger plan to make Kaluwanchikudy a hub for information technology in the East. The new centre has attracted huge interest amongst Batticaloa youth, and more than 500 students have been competing for the 143 slots. Ninthavur is the hub for vocational training in Ampara, and the new district centre will not only educate students of its own, it will also educate instructors to train at all the other vocational schools.

At the opening ceremony, Ambassador Blake reiterated the United States' commitment to support stability, security, democratic governance, economic growth, and development in Eastern Sri Lanka. "Today, we are making a serious commitment to support your institutions and to improve the economic opportunities that impact all of the people in the East," the Ambassador said. "Providing education and training for the young people of Eastern Sri Lanka is a key piece in the overall goal of creating lasting development, growth and stability in the East," he added. The Ambassador urged the central Government and the elected Chief Minister to assert responsibility for security and demobilise paramilitaries, and welcomed the Chief Minister's commitment to do so.

Together with its contractors, Sierra and CH2MHill, USAID is developing the vocational school programme in partnership with the Vocational Training Authority (VTA) under the aegis of the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training. USAID has worked closely with the VTA and with Sri Lanka's private sector to develop the curricula for the schools. The project's success is in part due to the model public-private partnership put in place, between USAID, VTA and the Chevron Corporation, Prudential, and the Mellon Foundation.