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A total of 65 aspiring educators were awarded certificates after completing a nine-day capacity building workshop—to equip students with future-ready skills—led by Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced
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Sook Hoon Cheah delivering
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Technological Education (SLIATE), Sarvodaya Fusion, STEMUp Educational Foundation, and Microsoft.
The ‘Future Ready Sri Lanka – Train the Trainer Workshop’ was held recently at Microsoft’s corporate office in Union Place, Colombo to advance technology’s ability to empower inclusion and drive impact in the classroom. The participants included academic and support staff from SLIATE and Sarvodaya Fusion.
Delivering the welcome speech, Microsoft Sri Lanka and Maldives Country Manager Hasitha Abeywardena said: “We must work towards ensuring that our children are future-ready. The teachers of today must constantly seek new and innovative ways to incorporate 21st-century learning into their classrooms and help students build future-ready skills to help them succeed in life. According to a United States Department of Labor report, 65 percent of students today will eventually be employed in jobs that have yet to be created.”
Sri Lanka is faced with the challenge of redefining a foundational education to keep up with the evolution of skills required to solve problems, innovate and succeed. To prepare students with the creative, collaborative and digital problem-solving skills of the future, educators will need to teach computer science as part of the core curriculum. The certificate winners will seek to integrate their learnings into the SLIATE and Sarvodaya Fusion curricula.
“At Microsoft, we are inspired every day by the impact dedicated educators and thoughtful leaders are making on innovative teaching, ultimately improving student outcomes,” said Sook Hoon Cheah, General Manager for the Southeast Asia New Markets within Microsoft Asia Pacific. “At the core of everything we do is the drive to inspire educators and, in turn, to help every student achieve more. Thanks to initiatives like Future Ready Sri Lanka, we are helping to create the workforce of tomorrow.”
Chief Guest Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education Rauff Hakeem thanked Microsoft for partnering with SLIATE, Sarvodaya Fusion, and STEMUp Foundation. He urged the certificate winners to remain dynamic and continuously update their skills and enhance their knowledge of educational technology. He also said that technology had made itself part of every aspect of people’s lives today, and the students who understand it are the ones who succeed in the business world.
