EDEX career guidance hold seminar

Sara Pathirana

The career guidance and counselling arm of EDEX, EDEX Careers held a seminar on its interactive web portal at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) main auditorium on Thursday.

The seminar was held in association with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, World University Services Canada (WUSC) and Sri Lanka Business Development Centre.

This portal was designed to provide a one stop platform that consistently enables users to access and update their data, connect school leavers with tertiary education and training as well as career aspirants with jobs available, while enabling institutes and employers to connect with people interested in study courses, training or job opportunities offered by them.

Devika Rodrigo, Vocational Training Specialist, WUSC at her NVQSL presentation for the EDEX Portal. Pictures by Saliya Rupasinghe.

Harin Malwatte, Secretary General/CEO, CCC during the keynote address at the seminar.

The presentations at the seminar included an informative session on the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) system in the country and about the role played by the Government towards further progress, explained by Devika Rodrigo, Vocational Training Specialist, WUSC. The NVQSL will provide opportunities for sustainable and strategic solutions for training needs. Legal framework for establishing NVQSL is provided by the Tertiary and Vocational Education Act.

"The aim is to build partnership with like minded organisations. Our members will benefit from what we're doing. Statistics show a rate of 6%-7% in unemployment, with the age group18-28 being in the region of 25% with most eligible and productive employees in need of work," Harin Malwatte, Secretary General, CEO, CCC said.

EDEX Careers portal offers facilities to submit CVs online with preferred career paths, online entry of higher education and vocational training course details, profiling of job opportunities, notifications on latest courses and job information and many other web links to specialist sources such as language skills and writing resources, presentations and speeches, tips on passing exams, scholarships and grants, country education websites, VISA assistance etc.

"This is a single platform that provides broad based higher education, career guidance and placement opportunities. This portal is a free lifetime account similar to facebook, where students, school leavers, job seekers to upload their CVs and create a profile to help them look for jobs, courses etc.

By the end of July 2013, a charge will be levied for publishing jobs by employers, educational institutions and advertisements.

Auto matching and email alert facilities help with prompt configuration of the process, along with the addition of psychometric tests and useful information. This portal helps to bridge the gap of demand and supply," Dilan Rajapakse, Director, EDEX Careers said.

"The challenge will be to bring the stakeholders to make us of this portal. HRMs will take up the challenge of using this and Institutions would encourage their students to use this facility," Richard Bonokoski, Country Director, WUSC said. Bonokoski launched the promotional banner at the event.