Delmege diversifies into education sector

Gayan KANCHANA

Delmege has diversified into the education sector through the Delmege Academy of Languages and Skills (Pvt) Ltd (DALAS) which was launched in Colombo recently.

DALAS has been set up with the aim of providing school-leavers, professionals and expatriates with language and skills to enhance the quality of their lives and careers.

The Delmage Academy of Languages and Skills (Pvt) Ltd, entered into an agreement with the British Council. Here Chairman, Delmege Forsyth & Co. Lt F.G.N. Mendis exchanges the agreement with Country Director of British Council Gill Westaway on the occasion. Picture by Sumanachandra Ariyawansa

The Academy is fully equipped with state of the art teaching facilities. The lecture panel consists of British/internationally qualified lecturers.

Director DALAS (Pvt) Ltd Ravi De Silva said that the main objective of DALAS is to improve the English skills development course and they specialize in conducting English language classes for internationally-accepted assessment examinations, such as IELTS, KET and PET and IT education. The Skills Development course conducted by the Academy will provide executives and even students with the opportunity to develop and hone their communication skills. The other language courses offered are spoken Tamil, Japanese for beginners and Sinhala for expatriates. These courses will help those who wish to expand their repertoire of languages.

For those aspiring to join the glamorous international airline industry as a cabin crew member, the Introductory Cabin Crew Training Course offered by the Academy will provide students an advantage and the basic skills needed to become an accomplished cabin crew member, he said.

Country Director, British Council Ms. Gill Westway, the Chief Guest on the occasion said that 2009 has been declared as the Year of English and Information Technology by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and education centres such as DALAS can help achieve this target. The English language comes to our aid in our commercial transactions throughout the globe.

English is the language of the latest business management in the world and Sri Lankans proficiency in English has brought credit to many managers. English is a means not only for international commerce; it has also become increasingly essential for inter-state commerce and communication.

Generally, the standard of English today does not depend on accent but rather on shared educational experience, mainly of the printed language. The present-day English is an immensely varied language, having absorbed words from many other tongues.

It is the official language of air transport and shipping; the leading language of science, technology, computers and commerce and a major medium of education, publishing, and international negotiation. For this reason, scholars frequently refer to its latest phase as world English, she said.