He made these observations at a ceremony where a MoU was signed between the governments of Sri Lanka and Korea to develop the Gampaha Technical College and the Orugodawatta Vocational Training Centre at the Ministry Auditorium. The project is estimated to coast 31.8 million US dollars.
The MoU was signed on behalf of the Sri Lankan Government by the Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development B.Wierathna and on behalf of the government of Korea by Prof.Jeon Kyung Seok of the Korean University of Technology and Education.
Minister Alahapperums further said that through signing of this agreement another step was taken to develop technical education field. This was as a result of a request made by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a bilateral discussion had with the Korean President.
The Minister pointed out that for Sri Lanka to become the Wonder of Asia we should develop vocational education. The previous governments did not place much weight towards technical education and this led to unemployment. Unemployment led to youth unrest in the country.
92.8% of the youth who were involved in the 1971 unrest were unemployed middle class youth. Youth unrest in most countries were due to frustration. President Mahinda Rajapaksa realizing this instructed to pay more attention to technical education field, said Minister Alahapperuma.
The Minister added that the President in order to develop technical education introduced national certification system for the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector of Sri Lanka, which is called the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) framework, University of Vocational Technology(UNIVOTEC), Technology stream to schools GCE Advanced Level subject and established University Colleges to make it easy to enter UNIVOTEC.
Minister Alahapperuma said that out of 340,000 children who joim grade one only 30,000 enter Universities and unemployment status of rest of the youth is the responsibility of the Skills Development Ministry.
The draft bill to establish an ocean university was passed in the parliament recently and to enter this university Z-score and age are no barriers. Avenues are open to achieve a degree or even professorial degree through national vocational qualkifications emphasized Minister Alahapperuma.
