The National Apprenticeship and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA) marks its 48th anniversary today.
The Authority was set up as a remedial measure to ease the youth unrest on the recommendation of the commission appointed to look into 1971 youth insurrection. The main objective was the elimination unemployment. The body was set up on December 16, 1971.
A present it has a network of four national training institutes and 25 district offices islandwide. With the support of over 15,000 private sector organisations, employment training is provided for over 25,000 youth.
A program to provide training for 25,000 employment opportunities in automobile, health, hotel and tourism trades has already been launched and the first intake of training has since been completed. The stage II of the training will begin on January 7 covering such fields as agriculture, livestock, electricity, electronic, telecommunications.
A vocational training program themed, ‘Vocational training for all’ has already been formulated on basic technology to help Sri Lankan to resolve future problem in the use of technology.
Another project titled, “From three wheel to Four Wheel” has been set up to provide a sort of technical training to over 10 lakhs of three wheel drivers out of a nine million workforce. To diversity the career of three wheel drivers, under this project they will be trained in plumbing, carpentry and electrical work.
NVQ certificates could be obtained only after completing the training program. At present the NAITA covers 25 fields of training with a chain of training institutes such as Katubedda Engineering Training Institute, Katunayake, Engineering Technology Institute, Orugodawatte Automobile training Institutes and the Kilinochchi Sri Lanka German training Institute.
The trained workforce by the NAITA during its tenure of 47 year has helped resuscitate the economy. Our aim today is to train entrepreneur and creators rather than technicians.