Resilience submits Final Plan on Centre of Excellence for Sri Lnk

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Prof.Torre handing over plan to Hon .Minister Piyasena Gamage

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Following the signing of a memorandum of understanding, on July 7, 2009, between the Ministry of Vocational Training of Sri Lanka, World Wide Resilience Lanka (WWR-Lanka) and the Resilience International Institute of Higher learning (RIIHL), based in the Netherlands, a foreign delegation from the Netherlands, including Prof. Dr. Cees J.A. Torré representing the WWR and RIIHL, and Prof. Dr. Lakshman Madurasinghe of the RIIHL have arrived in Colombo. This delegation will meet the minister of Vocational Training, the Hon. Piyasena Gamage, today September 16, 2009 at the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training.

The project has been set up as a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) in collaboration with  the Vocational Training Authority (VTA) coming under the purview of Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training. To support the execution of the project, WWR Lanka has entered into a partnership with the Institute of Java Technological Studies (IJTS), represented by Dr. Ishanta Siribaddana.

Center: the Hon. Minister Piyasena Gamage. Right: Admiral Daya Sandigiri, Chairman of the VTA. Left: Prof. Dr. Cees Torre, representing WWR and RIIHL.

During the meeting, the partners of the Public Private Partnership, namely the VTA, WWR and RIIHL  presented the final plan the Hon. Minister for the setup of the first  state-of –the-art Centre of Excellence for Teaching Languages and Information Communication Technology (CLICT). This center will be based at a location in Rajagiriya and will contain high-tech Audio  and video conferencing, Language Lab, Satellite based learning and online learning connecting the entire Sri Lankan island.

The CLICT will cater to develop the Sri Lankan labour force, not only in much needed language proficiency but also in IT and Communication skills to optimize the opportunities they have for professional and individual development in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the world.

This would also be in line with the wishes of the H.E. President Mahinda Rajapaksa who declared this year as English and IT year. The following team from WWR and RIIHL have visited the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training today to finalize the project implementation mechanism:

• Prof.Dr.Cees J.A.Torre
• Dr. Frans Van Dunné
• Prof. Dr. Lakshman Madurasinghe

Representing the other partners in the proposed project, the following representatives where there:

• Adm. Daya Sandigiri
• Cmdr. Lionel Pinto, MBA
• Ms. Ranmali Gunawardena