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| Sunday, 20 November 2005 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Ingrin project to facilitate printing industry by L. S. A. Wedaarachchi The printing and graphic industry in Sri Lanka suffers due to lack of skilled personnel. According to a survey the requirement of skilled personnel for the printing and graphic industry needed 19,278 in 2004 and the industry employs only 15,631 in various occupational grades. As a result of this situation some printing establishments were forced to close down and some establishments suffered losses owing to the waste caused by inexperienced workers. This was revealed in a survey conducted by the Sri Lanka Association of Printers. Having considered this situation, the Ingrin Institute of Printing and Graphics, a BOI Company under the purview of the Ministry of Skills Development, Vocational and Technical education, has decided to implement a special project to facilitate the printing industry. According to the Managing Director of the Ingrin Institute, Ananda Wicramaratna, one-hundred- and-twenty scholarships will be offered annually by the Institute for training programs on printing. At the end of the program, the successful participants will be employed in the printing establishments in Sri Lanka. The foreign Employment Bureau of Sri Lanka will assist the trainers to fulfil their aspirations by helping them to secure foreign employment. The students who expect to start their own business, will be helped to obtain loan facilities to purchase machinery by the Ministry of Skills Development Vocational and Technical Education. The Ingrin Institute of Printing and Graphics was set up in 1997 as a brainchild of Kingsley Wickramaratna, the then Minister and present Governor of the Southern Province. The main objective of the Institute is to improve the general standard of printing and graphics industry in Sri Lanka through provision of qualitative training at affordable prices and to assist those who are interested in pursuing a career in printing, particularly school-leavers, by creating awareness and providing training to secure gainful employment in the printing and graphics industry. During the last five-and-a-half years the institute had been able to fulfil a long-felt need of the industry by providing training on various aspects of printing and graphics to a large number of persons in the printing, packaging and advertising industries. Ingrin set up a branch in Galle and is planning to establish more branches in Kandy and Anuradhapura to further the policy of extending its services to the other provinces in Sri Lanka. The number of candidates trained by the institute has increased from 165 in 1998 to 1,350 by 2005. More than 7,500 trainees have passed out from the institute after completing the printing and graphics related training courses during the last ten years and 95 per cent of them have already been employed in the government and private sector organisations in Sri Lanka and abroad. The institute offers a large number of special training programs tailor-made to satisfy specific training needs of companies in the printing, packaging and advertising fields. Digital Pre Press, Certificate in Graphic Reproduction, Certificate in Offset printing design for print, Certificate Programs of Quark Xpress Photoshop, Kord machine servicing and preventive maintenance, General English for printing and Graphic Industry personnel, quality management, Diploma in Graphic Designing, Maya-3D modelling and animation, Higher Diploma in printing and graphics management, Computer Hardware Engineering and Net working are some of the programs conducted by the Ingrin Institute. The Ingrin Institute is at D. R. Wijewardene Mawatha, Colombo 10. |
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