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| Sunday, 9 February 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Rs. 2,000 to unemployed youth from March The government's election pledge to pay Rs. 2,000 per month to unemployed youth through the National Youth Corps will get under way next month. The money, tied up with a training program will be initially granted to 40,000 unemployed youth from various parts of the country including the North and East Mr. R. R. Amaratunga, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Policy Implementation said. Arrangements have already been made to train these youth under the Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation for a period of 18 months. Several other ministries are expected to be involved in the project, which seeks to provide employment to a large number of youth. The Government has allocated Rs. one billion for the project this year. Beneficiaries of the first batch were selected through tough interview process from youth who have passed the GCE A/Level Examination. During the course of the training the youth will be given food, accommodation and uniforms free of charge. According to officials at the Ministry of Policy Development the objective of the Youth Corps is to train and discipline educated youth to become leaders and make them confident to face the local and foreign job markets. "Once they are trained and confident they will find employment without any problem", said an official. An eight week in-house training syllabus includes English and IT has been designed for this purpose. Also included are health studies, environmental studies, drill and productivity. The youth will be trained in four selected camps at the Rantambe, Heiyantuduwa, Eraminiyaya and Embilipitiya youth centres. Two hundred male and 50 females will be accommodated in each camp for the period of training. Staff have been selected from the three services and they are due to undergo a refresher course shortly. Colonel Channa Gunatilake of the Sri Lanka Army has been seconded and appointed as the Director of the Youth Corps. The Council of the Youth Corps is headed by Mr. Charitha Ratwatte and include Secretary Defence Austin Fernando and Director NCC Dr. Sunil Navarathna. RK |
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