Microsoft/SLANA offer ICT training for migrant worker families

Microsoft together with the Sri Lanka Anti Narcotics Association (SLANA), and the Foreign Employment bureau has launched a series of IT training sessions for migrant workers and their families.

The five-day sessions, held at the SLANA auditorium, are part of a project to impart basic IT skills to migrant workers with the objective of developing competencies through a multi pronged training process that include IT, skills development, provision of information and mentoring towards enhancing the employability/economic security, Microsoft said. The project was created and planned by merging the expertise and knowledge of Microsoft, SLANA and the FEB. SLANA is an independent, non profit service organization committed to the prevention of drug abuse.

Over 1.5 million Sri Lankans are part of a migrant worker population that brings back 27.5% of the country’s much needed foreign exchange inflows – the highest foreign earning sector. Of these migrant workers, a vast majority are drawn from marginalized and underprivileged backgrounds.

Microsoft Sri Lanka together with SLANA entered in to a partnership with the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau in this project to enhance the quality of migrant workers lives by addressing this skill-gap and helping to bridge the digital divide.

Colombo, Chilaw and Kurunegala will be the target locations of this project, being areas that enjoy a high concentration of the envisaged beneficiary groups. These areas were also chosen as the project could tie up with SLANA centres at each location – where the five-day course would be conducted. The Bureau has stepped forward to provide resident facilities where necessary for the participants, and will also be engaged in referring families of the migrant workers to the project.