English Teaching Business Mela from today

COLOMBO: The Government will launch a major initiative this week on the teaching of English in the country aimed at improving the skills of English teachers both in the private and public sectors, training in English for Business Outsourcing, the use of new methods of English language teaching through the electronic media, and opening access to a large numbers of persons in the low income categories to obtain a working knowledge of English.

A key exercise in this programme is the 'English Teaching Business Mela' a Business Exchange being organised in Colombo from April 23 to 25 by the Board of Investment (BOI) of the Ministry of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion in collaboration with the Presidential Secretariat at Hotel Galadari, Colombo.

This will bring together Indian and Sri Lankan investors who will explore the possibility of joint ventures in English Language Teaching in Sri Lanka. Investment in these ventures will attract a range of BOI concessions making them attractive investments.

This job-oriented English Language Programme titled 'English as a Life Skill' is an initiative by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which in the short-term seeks to produce at least 50,000 persons with communicative skills in English to serve in any capacity, especially in the services sector such as IT related Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industries.

This fast-track development of skills in English in expected to attract more investment to Sri Lanka in areas where human resources with adequate Communicative English Language skills are at present largely lacking.

The programme which targets youth above 18 years for intensive English language skills improvement will provide financial assistance to 50,000 persons between ages 18 and 24 over three years to acquire Job Oriented Communicative English Skills through a special loan scheme subscribed by both the Government and Private Sector.

The 'English as a Life Skill' programme is organised jointly by the Presidential Secretariat and the Board of Investment, with the assistance of the High Commission for India in Sri Lanka.