Centenary Academy a political training programme
View(s):The Centenary Movement is set to launch the Centenary Academy, a political training programme in line with Sri Lanka’s 73rd Independence Day celebration on February 4 2021.
The Centenary Movement is a diverse, progressive, and results-driven movement with a 2048 vision of creating a competent generation of leaders for Sri Lanka that will transform the political, economic, and social values of the country.
It is a non-partisan body initiated by young and experienced Sri Lankan activists from various professional backgrounds with the vision of making Sri Lanka a better place to live in, and to put a new generation to the core of national decision-making to chart a better path to progress over the long-term.
The Academy will be a one-year programme that would run from February 2021 to February 2022. Each session would be conducted over the weekend for six hours online with a two-day residential training every last weekend of the month.
The participants would have the opportunity to interact with peers from every district of the country each week for lessons that had been carefully and thoughtfully curated to increase their skills and knowledge.
Each session would be conducted by reputed experts in the relevant field. Participants would have an opportunity to learn and interact with some of the best minds from Sri Lanka while getting an opportunity to engage in additional internationally accredited courses.
The two-day weekend training held at the end of each month would provide participants to interact with their peers in person, engage in knowledge sharing and learn together. The weekend trainings would be intensive sessions that allow participants to engage in-depth with each of the policies that the Centenary Movement focuses on.
Each participant would be given a detailed curriculum that reflects the themes and topics that they would be taught throughout the year. Each resource person would use this as a foundation to share their knowledge and experience.
At the end of the academic year each participant would be paired with a mentor in their respective fields. The purpose of this three-month mentorship program was the an opportunity to learn from experts and visionaries in the field, who would be able to expose the participants to their networks while sharing their knowledge and expertise.
Participants would go through a training that would involve looking inwards to reflect, understand personal value systems, form cohesive personal narratives and map their own personal networks. The training would focus on the themes of grassroots campaigning, understanding local contexts, policy formulation, finance, communication and branding. The policy modules that would be taught include politics and governance, diversity and inclusion, economic reform, health and wellbeing and environment and agriculture.
Following the launch, the movement would be working towards ten milestones indicating a successful model nation free of corruption and poverty, to be achieved by 2048 through the implementation of the Centenary Academy.
A spokesperson from the Centenary Movement told the Education Times that they had already secured nearly 300 applicants for the 50 available positions for the first cohort representing every district of the country.
“However, since they habe a greater number of applicants than originally expected, we are looking to launch a virtual academy as well. Prospective students and anyone who wishes to volunteer for the movement and support the cause can apply through their website – www.100.lk,” they said. - Tharushi Weerasinghe