The power that can take the country forward

by Sajitha Prematunge and Anushka Nanayakkara
 

[email protected]

According to the UN criteria youth is between the age of 15 to 29. According to statistics there are around 4,625,000 'youths' belonging to this age group in Sri Lanka.

Youth has the power to take the country forward in all areas politically, economically and socially and due to this reason Youth Core was founded. The interview was given to the Sunday Observer by the Director of the Youth Core Piyatissa Ranasighe to reminisce over the projects and programmes of the previous year and to discuss the new projects and developments to be made for the year 2008.

Youth Core was founded in 2003 under the Act No. 21 of 2002. It was initially planned to create 100 youth training centres all over the country, one for each electorate. In 2003, it was initiated with five training centres, increasing up to 15 in 2004 and to 39 in 2006.

Two centres have been closed down since, one in Battialoa, which has been turned into a Tsunami refugee camp and another in Jaffna, which has been handed over to the forces. Except in Colombo, 37 centres are now in operation, with an over all capacity of accommodating 100,000 youths around the country.

Two more centres, one in Kantale and another in Walapane are under construction. 36 of these training centres are in-house training centres. The training centre in Rantambe is an outdoor training centre. The money for all Youth Core programmes come from the treasury through the Youth Ministry and last year as well as this year, 800 million has been reserved for the Youth Core.

"According to the Act, Youth Core has three main functions - Youth development, Vocational training and Placement for job market." said Piyatissa Ranasinghe. All activities of the centres are based on theses functions. Trainees otherwise known as rangers are girls and boys of the age group of 16 to 26.

During the six-month in-house training period the rangers are trained on seven subjects - Communicative English, Information Technology, Career Guidance, National Heritage, Social Science, Aesthetic Studies and Personal Development.

During this period the trainees have to spend at least two weeks on Community development activities, facilitated by local authorities such as road constructions, clearing of agricultural canals, environmental projects and hospital and school repairs. During the six months of hardcore physical training, trainees spend one and half hours each day on drills, sports and physical exercises.

The trainees are also given a six-month special training on disaster management, prevention of AIDS and environmental protection.

At the end of this six-month special training a separate career guidance test is given to all the trainees, after which they are directed to either vocational training institutes or other companies.

For example the Colombo Dockyard has requested for nearly 150 trainees, Senok 50, Cargills 100 as Marketing Assistants and the companies affiliated to the apparel industry over 1000 trainees annually.

Some of these trainees are then registered at Jobs net, which is working under the Labour Ministry to provide candidates for vacancies in the private sector. Information about all trainees are also sent to BOI, in order to maximise their chances of employment.

Annual art and sports festivals as well as job fairs held by companies on the look out for potential employees, are few of the activities held at the centres. A strictly disciplined schedule has to be adhered to by all trainees. At least one week of special physical training, at Kantale training centre, is compulsory for every student. "This is a special army training." said Piyatissa Ranasinghe. Recently over 40 trainees joined the Navy and the Air Force, from Kekirawa training centre.

The students are provided with an allowance of Rupees 1000, as well as breakfast, lunch, tea and two sets of uniforms. "We even go out of our way to partially pay the trainees vocational training fees." said Ranasinghe.

A staff of 14 in each training centre, consists of a Major ranking officer of the forces as the OIC, Captain ranking officer as Assistant OIC, seven graduates for class room teaching, four drill and physical training instructors who are also provided by the forces.

The forces personnel are either obtained through the Defence Ministry or recruited after retirement.

"Nearly 10,000 registered for the first batch last year, but only 6,000 completed the course. Out of almost 11,000 individuals who applied for the second batch only 8,500 completed the training. For the year 2008 youth core received 13,800 applications for the first batch, but we were able to accommodate only up to our full capacity - 10,000."

This year Youth Core has prepared separate schemes with Private sector companies to train the rangers to tailor to their needs. "Cargills has asked us to train 1000 as marketing assistants.

Moreover there are over 7000 vacancies in the Maritime Campus in the ship building and repairing fields. But the training course is very expensive. Providing them the necessary training with the assistance of Youth Core as well as the private sector, is on the discussion table." said Ranasinghe.

Youth Cores target for 2008 is to train 20,000 personnel, to give vocational training to at least 15,000 of the trainees and at least 5000 job placements in the private sector. More than 93,000 students who qualify to enter the university do not get a chance.

Consequently the Youth Core is now exploring the possibility of offering diplomas for these youth, conducted by University staff themselves, under a nominal fee.

These courses will be focused on subjects in step with the times, such as hotel management, tourism, farming and radio technology.