British Council Sri Lanka launches 'The Leadership Café

To mark  the annual United Nations’ World Skills Day 2017, with the theme of “Breaking the Barriers”, the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Sri Lanka in collaboration with The British Council Sri Lanka is launching The Leadership Café on July 15 from 3 p.m -5 p.m.

This inaugural event is a pilot programme for the Leadership Café concept that will be held monthly at the British Council Jaffna offices, with anticipation of rolling launches in other districts across the country. The concept is designed to be a comfortable, safe, inspiring and youth friendly space for interaction, innovation and learning opportunities. The “café” will be driven by youth and for youth, initially with some “steering” assistance by the sponsors, WUSC and the British Council.

Through the Advancing Specialized Skills for Economic Transformation (ASSET) project, WUSC has trained over 2,000 youth in Sri Lanka and – and has additional plans to train approximately 2,500 more youth over the next two (2) years. Trainees learn vocational and soft skills in key, emerging sectors including hospitality and tourism, ICT, construction and light engineering. The objectives of ASSET are to improve linkages between government, training institutions, private sectors and CSO’s; to enhance capacity of partner organizations to plan and manage skills for employment training, as well as increasing the acceptance of careers in the trade and technology sectors.