EDEX Expo - single largest platform for educational opportunities

by P. Krishnaswamy

The EDEX Expo 2012 opens from January 20-22 at the BMICH and on January 27-28 at the Kandy City Centre.

This is the largest education and career exhibition being held in Sri Lanka more than 250 educational institutions from 20 countries will participate, offering higher education to aspiring students in many disciplines.

It is being held for the 9th successive year with the endorsement of the Presidential Secretariat, the Ministries of Education, Higher Education Youth Affairs and Labour and has benefited thousands of students and job seekers in previous years.

Envisioned to "Empower Sri Lanka youth to be globally competitive", EDEX was launched in 2004 by the Royal College Union to offer best choices, options and opportunities in careers to youth of Sri Lanka on a single platform, guiding them towards gainful employment.

Participants at the exhibition represent reputed universities from USA, UK, Russia, the Middle East, Far East, South Asia, Australia and New Zealand that are ranked high by many global standards. A large number of international and local professional institutes of the highest calibre are participating in the exhibition. There will also be many local vocational and technical training institutes from both government and private sectors, offering many options to gain advanced knowledge and enhanced skills, it was stated at the press briefing.

EDEX is the single largest platform that offers many choices, options and opportunities for aspiring youth from many social strata, irrespective of their level of education.

It is visited by senior students, eager parents, school leavers, unemployed, underemployed and those seeking higher educational, technical or vocational training opportunities or professional qualifications, it was stated.

Services of many career guidance counsellors will also be available at both Colombo and Kandy events to assist and guide deserving youth and caring parents in the selection of most fulfilling and well rewarding career paths.

There will also be many informative career guidance seminars that will be conducted parallely with free onsite psychometric testing service on offer.

EDEX in Colombo and Kandy offer opportunities for spot admissions at substantially reduced rates to various academic, vocational, technical and professional courses and post graduate and MBA programs offered by local and foreign institutions, with additional opportunities for deserving students to win full/partial scholarships.

Additionally, there will also be ancillary service such as Banks providing loans, concessionary courier services, substantially discounted air tickets offered exclusively by our national carrier SriLanka Airlines.

Kamal Abeysinghe, Chairman, EDEX 2012 spoke at the press briefing and video presentations of promotional trailers and TV Commercials were displayed. Marketing Director, Singer Sri Lanka PLC Nasser Majeed, MD/CEO, ESOFT Computer Studies (Pvt) Ltd.Dr.Dayan Rajapaksa, CEO/Executive Director, ANC Education Dr.Punarjeeva Karunanayake and Chief Operating Officer, Western College for Management & Technology Chintaka Wijayaratne who are platinum sponsors of the event also spoke.

President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Sujeeva Rajapaksa, Senior GM, Corporate Planning & Marketing, Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd. Janaka Jayalath and Internal Auditor, CINEC Capt.G.J. Amarasooriya who are the Gold Sponsors also spoke.