Inspired and led by the excellent guidance of the’ Mahinda Chinthana Idiridekma”, one of the major programs proposed by Hon. Minister S.B.Dissanayake is “Professional Graduates” which is aimed at improving the employability of Sri Lankan graduates.
CIMA, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants UK signed a MOU with the minister to mark this landmark initiative which is aimed at up-skilling and building capacity of the undergraduates in order to ensure that in addition to the excellent knowledge they gain during their tenure at the university they equip themselves with a world recognized professional qualification that would give them the competencies and skills to drive their organizations to international standards.
Speaking at the media briefing Hon. Minister S.B.Dissanayake said, ‘We are now focusing on “Globally Employable” graduates. This means all graduates passing out of the university should be ready to work anywhere in the world.
All students who enter the universities are considered as the “Cream “ and those passing out as graduates should be equipped and ready with the world market need. It’s our duty to accept this responsibility and work towards developing our own graduates pro-actively so that they meet up with the challenging demands of employers in both the public and private sectors.
To meet this requirement, the Ministry of Higher Education designed this Professional Graduates program which paves the way to do their degree while they do professional programs like CIMA, CA, IPM, CIM, SLIM, CPA, ACCA, AAT etc.
We are very happy to announce that CIMA is the first professional body to support this program with around 45% overall discount to the undergraduates of our universities. With the assistance of Higher Education for Twenty-First Century (HETC) - a World Bank Funded project, we are initially implementing this among six universities: Colombo, Sri Jayawardenapura, Kelaniya, Ruhuna and Jaffna.
The special features of this program are as follows:
- Students who register will get special discounts for the Registration, and Tuition fees; They can do their studies in the campus while they are doing their degree programs and do not need to go out of the university to follow the lectures of the professional programs. If they need any financial assistance Banks will provide special loan scheme to help the students. Finally when they come out as graduates they can be professionals too, making them more employable graduates both locally and globally.
We are planning to spread this program to other universities and SLIATE too. At the same time we hope other professional bodies too follow CIMA and help our graduates to be the professional in their respective fields’.
Mr Bradley Emerson Regional Director Middle East, South Asia & North Africa said
‘This landmark event is a very futuristic and bold initiative taken by the Ministry of Higher Education. This also endorses the national vision of creating a knowledge society. Out of nearly half a million who sits for the OL exam only 4% gets in to university and we believe as educationist we are obliged make them rounded and globally competitive. CIMA is indeed proud to part on this national vision of transforming the local ability to global capability. We sincerely appreciate the initiative of the Minister, the Ministry official, Deans and the Vice Chancellors and our tuition providers who come together to make this a reality.’
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