EDEX exhibition in Kandy

by Ananda Kannangara

Sri Lanka's higher education and careers exhibition, the EDEX-Expo - 2013, organised by the Colombo Royal College Union (RCU) will be held in Kandy on January 25 and 26.

Chairman, EDEX-2013, Kamal Abeysinghe addressing the gathering. Officials at the head table look on. Pic: Saliya Rupasinghe

The theme of this year's exhibition is 'Empower Sri Lankan youth to be globally competitive'.

According to the RCU, the objective of this exhibition is to help schoolchildren, university students and job seekers find suitable vocational, technical and skills training at major universities and educational institutions all over the world.

Chairman, EDEX, Kamal Abeysinghe said during the past nine years EDEX had helped tens of thousands of youth to follow a spectrum of local and foreign career guidance programs.

'EDEX' has decided to expand its services by commencing a career guidance workshop series, focusing on youth in rural and remote schools.

He said the EDEX web portal w.w.w.edex.lk offers numerous resources to them as a 'one stop' virtual education and careers platform.

EDEX has also launched the 'Live your Dream' program to reach out and offer tangible help to some identified remote schools in the country.

Under this program needy schools including those in the North have been provided with new libraries, IT lab facilities, new roofs, sports equipment and medicines.

EDEX has decided to distribute its tri-lingual quarterly EDEX Magazine free to all secondary schools and 500 regional libraries all over the country to make this program a success.

Abeysinghe said, "At present our country appears to develop adequate human resources in the fields of commerce and arts and it also appears that science and engineering education will be vital to meet challenges emerging in the future." He said some remote schools which lack library, IT and other facilities should be supported and all stakeholders in society, especially private sector corporate institutions need to play a bigger role considering that they will one day become the ultimate beneficiaries as 'potential employers' of these students.

Over 250 local exhibitors and 200 foreign universities will make representations at the exhibition in Kandy.

RCU, Secretary, Manju Ariyaratne said EDEX was set up in 2004 to offer a better quality of education for youth after their school career as it will be highly beneficial to secure gainful employment here and abroad.