Project News

The implementation of ‘Industrial Orientation Programme (IOP)’ has been very successful in the recent past among stakeholders and the relevant industries of the JSCoT Project. The purpose of the Industrial Orientation Programme is to provide an opportunity to build win-win Industrial Relationship between industries and the Department of Technical Education and Training (DTET), and Sri Lanka College of Technology (SLCoT) in order to achieve sustainability of the model courses.

Industrial representatives from 23 Industries, two senior officers from Ministry of Industrial Development (MID) and two senior officers and three officers from Export Development Board (EDB), the Senior Representative and Representative of JICA Sri Lanka Office, Japan Expert on Industrial Relations, Director SLCoT, Acting Chief Advisor, Project Coordinating Manager, Consultant Industrial Relations, and other JICA - JSCoT Project Staff were the participants of the programme held on July 10, 2009.

From the beginning registration form was provided to the industrialists to collect the details of the industry and at the end of the programme, structured evaluation form was submitted to get feedback, comments and ideas for improvements. The industrialists then visited sections on ICT, Mechatronics, and Metalwork at SLCoT. Comprehensive model course orientation was conducted with the involvement of Head of Department, Course Coordinators and instructors as a team.

The industrialists were highly impressed with infrastructure facilities, machinery and equipments and human resources and the adopted technology while they had highlighted the importance of designing the courses based on the equipments of the industries. Further, more interest was shown towards all three courses by the industrialists.

As a result of the highly structured Industrial Orientation Programme, the industrialists were convinced to express their interest for the following aspects: to provide opportunity for in-plant training; to provide jobs after in-plant training; to provide industry or factory visits to trainees; to provide technical contribution to the course improvement; and to conduct technical sessions / lectures for students. Further, they were interested in obtaining short courses and training for their employee technicians utilizing the high tech infrastructure.

At the same time the delegates identified some areas of the Model Courses which required further considerations. They included: the difficult path for enrolment; a gap in designing market oriented short courses; the necessity to add communication courses; and further knowledge needed by the Instructors. As the specific need of the industry, they pointed out the need for short courses on CNC Programming, Auto CAD, Automated Programme for welding, ECU Repairing Technology and advanced metal ranking as well as some of the consultancies and facility renting requirements.

The industrialist suggested that it would be very useful to introduce part time courses during weekends for employees of the industries and give opportunity to use resources at the SLCoT for industrialists. Apart from that, the SLCoT should be expanded to Island wide and introduce awareness programmes about SLCoT and new courses through electronic and print media. They also suggested that the industrialist should aware about the latest development of the SLCoT. Further, the resources should be developed for the best use of country and should value the resources.

Text: Samantha Pathiratne-JSCoT Consultant (Industrial Relations)