EFC to train visually impaired

The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC) will launch a six-month IT training program for eight visually impaired persons in Vavuniya on August 2.

The course funded by the ILO-LEED program, will be conducted at the recently refurbished ORHAN Training Centre by Ms. Manique Guneratne, an EFC employee, who is also visually impaired. Ms. Guneratne, a qualified ITC trainer, has conducted many IT courses for the visually impaired at the EFC’s purpose-built training centre in Colombo.

All course material will be presented in Tamil and the EFC has recruited a translator for the program. Last year the EFC successfully completed its first training program for five visually impaired persons in Vavuniya.

The EFC conducted a mini job fair and invited representatives from the Hatton National Bank, Commercial Bank, People’s Bank, Bank of Ceylon, National Savings Bank, Cargills (Ceylon) PLC and Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC, to conduct interviews with a view to offering them a three to six month paid internship.

Around five percent of the world’s population are disabled and only half of them are gainfully employed, according to a World Bank report. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Disability said that there is a direct correlation between armed conflicts and disability. “Training programs of this nature will help restore the dignity of affected people and contribute to the development of the country,” an EFC official said.