Pathfinders in modern education

Ishara JAYAWARDANE

Royal College once more returns to the pages of the Daily News and this time it is about the tremendous success of their brainchild EDEX. EDEX is the leading career guidance programme in Sri Lanka drawing large crowds and rendering an invaluable service to the motherland. For the last eight years it has been the most highly anticipated educational function, making dreams come true. In fact EDEX specializes in helping students to achieve their aspirations locally and internationally.

Career guidance

“In the mid 1990’s we started a career guidance workshop for the benefit of senior students and as well as the parents and teachers in Royal College. We realized that the opportunities for employment were emerging in new areas; moving away from the traditional careers at that time. e.g Doctors and Engineers. We also realized that there was little awareness amongst the public about these emerging career options.

Then a few years later we invited the professional institutes to come and disseminate information one to one directly to the students and as well as the parents. So institutes such as CIMA, CIM and a few institutions came. We realized that we were putting in a lot of efforts to organize it. We also realized that it is not fair for only a limited number of students at Royal College to benefit from that kind of a huge effort.

Then we thought we should move away from Royal College, create a platform on a national scale because in this era career guidance was not given any due regard by anybody. We realized that this initiative can contribute a lot to educate the public seeking higher educational options within the country and internationally. We thought that this kind of an initiative can really benefit. In that backdrop we went to BMICH and had our first EDEX exhibition in 2004. Initially we started very small but it was an instant success.

Some of the officials who visited the exhibition last year

And by the second year the demand had grown bigger and we had to take both sides of the Bandaranaike exhibition hall. Some how first year itself we had a visitor turn out of 15,000. From there onwards it grew. The demand from the exhibitors as well as the visitors grew year on year. In 2004 we decided to go to Kandy. That way we became the first national scale exhibition to be conducted as a twin exhibition both in Colombo and Kandy, which we are continuing up to now,” said EDEX Chairman Kamal Abeysinghe.

The vision

EDEX can be explained as the education excellence/ education exposition or educational exhibition. “It gives a composite meaning of all what I have said. In terms of our vision, the vision evolved over a period of time. We did not have this vision when we started. What we realized was our youth, when they study or work within Sri Lanka they are subjected to certain barriers.

Even some mental barriers which impede them realizing their full potential. But we also observe that when they go out, either for studies or employment they excel, they can compete with the best in the world. Primarily we recognized we have in our genes the potential to compete. We wanted to see our youth become competitive in the world and in the global market through education and skills.

With that mindset only we coined it as ‘To Empower The Sri Lankan Youth To Be Globally Competitive.’ Particularly we used the world Sri Lankan to refer to our youth because of that distinction. Our Vision is to create the single largest platform showcasing the choices and opportunities in higher education, vocational and technical training leading to gainful employment. Later in 2009, with the launch of the ‘Think Green Initiative’ we expanded our vision with the addition of these words : to educate, activate and engage youth towards sustainable living. 2013 will be the tenth event / anniversary.

The Colombo event this year (2013) we will have over 275 standards size stalls and nearly 200 exhibitors, representing the cream of service providers in tertiary education, vocational training and technical training, professional institutes and even some employers who will be participating to recruit their future employees. So we have a domestic exhibition hall where the local service providers will be participating.

Then we have the international exhibition hall where the foreign universities and their local agents will be showcasing the opportunities in higher education outside Sri Lanka. So historically we have had over 20 countries being represented. Over 250 Universities will be represented either directly or indirectly through their agents. We also have a new feature where there will be a demarcated area for career guidance and recruitment will take place.”

The next step

Every year during the third week of January, the exhibition is held. That is the time just after the O/Level exam and A/level results have been just released. They are in a mindset to look for the next step. “Kandy we will be having 80 booths, so altogether we will have around 350 stalls both in Colombo and Kandy.

However not all the participants in Colombo will be going to Kandy. This is the eighth year we are having it both in Colombo and Kandy. 2013, in terms of what is offered, it will facilitate spot admissions for those who seek courses or enrollment into universities, they can stand to get scholarships - full and partial scholarships.

Then there can be other concessionary offers, like waving off the registration fees or they can expect discounts and access to a host of other ancillary educational related facilities. We had over 35,000 in Colombo and about 18,000 in Kandy, I believe the size of visitors will remain the same. Basically it is that cohort that will come. From the inception we had a website which was a static website where we disseminated exhibition related information. But then we realized that there were limitations we cannot take this exhibition from city to city, because we are also a voluntary organization and already so much of time is committed. When we finish one exhibition we have to get ready for the next.

There is also a demand from all the leading cities to bring this exhibition to their city. E.g Galle, Matara, Ratnapura. But it is not possible. Therefore we thought we should offer a solution and we thought way back in 2007 to develop resources for a web platform so it can be accessed by anybody from anywhere in the country or in the world. During the past seven, eight years we have gradually developed this web platform to offer much more than the physical exhibition offers. It has various web links that will guide students and even how to prepare a CV, how to face an interview.

Such web resources are there. We have offered even a free psychometric test- all these are offered free. The unique feature is we have offered something similar to a face book account, which is free to the user. You can open an account, build up your profile, and virtually you will end up creating a CV profile.

With that data you can indicate your preferred choices. If you are a seeker of higher educational courses, you can indicate that. On the supplying side we have institutions providing various courses. This web portal has an automatic search and matching engine. It can match and the system can send you an email alert. If there is a new course which is not there today once that is input into the website you will get an email alert.

That is if you are looking for a higher educational course. At the same time course providers can also access our database and find out who are the likely students who will want our services. So it works both ways. It does not end with the educational service providers.

We are getting the employers also to come in. By inputting your profile/opening an account in our site, building your profile, you stand a chance to even secure employment from so many prospective employers. If you continue to update your profile you stand a chance that some other employer totally unknown to you offering you a better job. If you are under employed and you have your profile with you, so if there are employers who are looking for a person with your qualifications and experience can run through our database, look at your profile and call you for an interview. That is the advantage it will have.”

This website is being co-hosted by the official internet of the Ministry of education which allows access to some 1500 schools. They have been recognized as a website that can be accessed by any student. “The EDEX magazine is also another initiative. That is the pioneering career guidance magazine in the country. It is trilingual quarterly magazine. We send complementary copies to 2700 plus secondary schools in the country free of charge and for 500 plus rural libraries. In Colombo also the leading libraries get free of charge but particularly we send them to outstations libraries. So that the youth can get educated about the various aspects of preparing for employment. One of the special features is that in every issue we spotlight a particular industry and give a snapshot view of the opportunities available.