Sri Lankan university course structures and curricular are meticulously planned so that the undergraduates could involve in their studies phasing out their leisure, etc, a top official said.
Prof A K W Jayawardene, Vice Chancellor, Moratuwa University told the Business Times (BT) that today’s university course structure and curricular is so structured that there is adequate flexibility for the undergraduate to take in other pertinent areas for specialization.
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| Minister S.B. Dissanayake, chief guest at the event looking at a bulb produced by a model company, named LEEF. The bulbs are made using non-hazardous elements with minimal heat dissipation (waste). A 4W bulb trademarked 'LED' is equivalent to 60W incandescent or 1.5 CFL. Pic by Amila Prabodha. |
He was speaking on the sidelines of an event where nine student companies from the Moratuwa University were launched last week in Colombo under the Enhancing Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) 2011 organized by Young Entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka.
Patrick Amarasinghe, President, Young Entrepreneurs Sri Lanka (YESL) said that the students at the Moratuwa University had already organized nine companies with over 300 shareholders. He said that the programme allows students to form model companies registered under YESL and carry out business activities until they pass out from the university allowing them to experience firsthand the corporate environment.
He said that these companies have various enterprises ranging from engineering and fashion design and product development, to solution providers.
Mr Amarasinghe told the BT that until 2008 the USAID was funding the YESL projects 500 schools around Sri Lanka, but since they stopped funding now the number of schools has dropped to mere 50 schools. He said that he has repeatedly requested the privatesector to take up these worthy projects that would produce real term entrepreneurs who would become job creators rather than job seekers.
But the response, he added, has been lukewarm. However he was happy the National Development Bank (NDB) is sponsoring the project at the Moratuwa University and earlier Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (BSBC) undertook to sponsor 1,000 underprivileged school children. He said that Citibank took up sponsoring 1,000 school children in a YESL programme.
He said that around 15 private sector institutions too are now involved in these school children projects. He said that it is very encouraging that 17 universities are taking up the project forming model companies and currently they are on the finalizing stage.
He told the BT that there are 6 million people below 25 years of age and it is impossible for any government to provide jobs for them. He said that if the private sector sponsors programmes like these, some part of these trained children could find employment and others could become successful entrepreneurs. He urged the private sector to take up this important national task as it would ease the unemployment problem in the country. |
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