Project News

03rd Steering Committee Meeting

The 3rd Steering Committee meeting was held on 5th July 2006 at the conference room of the Department of Technical Education and Training. The meeting, chaired by Dr. Obeysekara, Director General, DTET, reviewed the achievements during May-June and discussed activities in July-September, 2006.

The following major achievements were reported at this meeting.

1.1st batch of equipment (IT) is delivered to the project site,
2.Training of Counterpart Officers by the short term expert is done on PROTS, TWI and 5S,
3.Three Counterpart Officers have been newly sent to Japan and Malaysia,
4.1st Technical Committee meeting was held,
5.Skills Competition 2005 certificate awarding ceremony was over.

The meeting also discussed, among other subjects, the continuation of training course development, teaching materials development, procurement of the 2nd group equipment, counterpart officers training in Japan, assignment of additional counterpart officers and workshop improvement work in the next period.

2nd Joint Coordinating Committee Meeting

The 2nd Joint Coordinating Committee Meeting was held on 12th July 2006 at the conference room of the Secretary of the Ministry of Vocational & Technical Training. Mr. Hapangama, Secretary, chaired the meeting. They reviewed the past 6-month achievements and discussed the activity plans in the coming 6-month period. The following reports were presented by the relevant officials.

- Mr. Umimae, the Chief Advisor, explained the overall report on the Japanese inputs, achievements, project activities and draft course outline.
- Mr. Kulatunga, Director (Supplies & Services), reported the progress of reimbursement of taxes and duties to suppliers as well as the furniture procurement plan for model courses, workshops and Counterpart rooms.
- Dr. T.A. Piyasiri, Director General, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC), explained training hours, entry qualifications of students, instructors qualifications, certification procedures and the assessment procedures.
- Mr. Ranaweera, Director (Testing and Evaluation), reported the progress of National Skills Competition 2006.
- Mr. Gurusinghe, Director (Industry Liaison & Career Guidance), reported the plan for the 2nd Technical Committee meeting.

The Japanese side has particularly requested the Sri Lankan side to expedite the relevant construction work at Maradana TC and to take financial measures for running new technician courses from January next year.