Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) providers are increasingly playing a major role in the local educational industry. 

In that context University College of Ratmalana is a much needed addition to strike a balance in the skills and competency demand in the service industry.

This development is a result of Sri Lanka moving in to an efficiency driven economy where demand for skills and competencies based employment opportunities have increased at a rapid rate.

One of the main criticisms the Sri Lankan educational sector had to deal with was the incapability to support the majority of qualified youth in tertiary education. According to ‘Building the skills for the economic growth and competitiveness of Sri Lanka’ a report compiled by the World Bank, in the recent past, every year, close to 140,000 students qualified at the GCE A/L examination for university admission, however only about 24,000 that is only 17% of students qualify for university admission given the limitation of the Sri Lankan higher education system.

To reduce the ripple effect caused by constraints five university colleges were established last year to create alternate learning pathways up to degree level students who are leaving formal education. The university colleges in Ratmalana, Kuliyapitiya, Anuradhapura, Matara and Jaffna are established under a Special Act of Parliament, affiliated to University of Vocational Technology (UNIVOTEC). The students who have completed the NVQ Level 6 qualification at the university colleges are eligible to follow the respective degree programs offered by UNIVOTEC. The university colleges are governed by government professional bodies; however, prominence is given to the public private partnership. 

The manifesto of the new regime has given more prominence to the TVET sector by formulating a clear agenda to cater to the industry requirements. UNIVOTEC Vice Chancellor Dr. T.A. Piyasiri recently told the Daily FT that he is very confident about a promising future in the TVET sector. He has also contributed in formulating the World Bank report which recommended that vocational training should be spearheaded by the Government recognising the key role of the informal sector which accounts for 62% of the labour market. 

University College of Ratmalana covers the western boundaries of the country providing essential competency based training and education. Their curriculum is fully focused on building the industry and related skills and competencies. The University College stays ahead of the rivals by charging a very nominal fee of Rs. 60,000 for the entire three-year Higher National Diploma Program, whilst serving youth focusing on social responsibility. 

The Daily FT was able to obtain an exclusive interview with University College of Ratmalana CEO/Director Pubudu De Zoysa. As a product of the University of Moratuwa, Civil Engineering Faculty, she’s very well aware that free education comes with a price and responsibility.

“I’m a proud product of the free education in Sri Lanka. I know that my education was funded by the tax payers of my country. That’s the message to our students and staff at the college always. Only 10% of the basic expenses, is charged from students, hence I strongly believe that students should value it with great respect,” she added.

Below are excerpts of the interview:

By Shehana Dain    

Q: What was the objective of setting up University College Ratmalana?

A: The Sri Lankan conventional university education system and infrastructure can accommodate only limited intake every year, cream of the cream who gets qualified to enter into the state universities. The balance gets into various diverse fields. They get into the job market, private universities or they get into professional diploma courses and some may migrate to pursue their higher studies. Currently, Sri Lanka offers limited programs to develop youth in their skills and competencies to develop their higher professional qualifications. 

Secondly the industry has a huge demand constraint because we don’t have the technician or supervisor level competent workforce to cater to that demand, which creates a vacuum and hinders the economic development of our country. Our main focus is to cater to the industry with a competent, employable workforce with right attitudes to drive Sri Lanka towards the country’s development goals.

The main area I would like to stress here is that there is a very important social responsibility component we deliver for youth and it is important for them to understand and realise it in real terms. On the other hand, our focus is to produce a globally employable product to the society so that in-turn they will repay it by means of contributing to become part of the efficient labour force which will ultimately grow Sri Lanka’s economy.  

Today the GCE A/L syllabus has re-developed significantly with the technology stream education. Therefore students have various fields to choose rather than selecting the conventional paths. We expect a huge demand of those students who follow those fields and the first batch of school leavers who completed the new syllabus will have more opportunities to enter into the higher national diploma and degrees in various fields.

 

Q: The new regime has pledged to re-develop technical colleges as colleges of technology. What’s your take on that?

A: Yes I did notice it with great hopes. In fact, before the General Election in August 2015, I read all leading political parties’ manifestos and they had given prominence to technical education and competency build-up on youth. I am very thankful and personally believe this will raise the bar in the performance of our colleges as well as the other players in the industry as it will create a healthy challenge among us. Today, we live in a world where, whether the student is from a university, technical college, university college or any other institute, every employer is expecting a professional with the right attitude, right set of skills and competencies to join their organisation to achieve their intended bottom line and top line growth of their business within the shortest time period.

I believe it will certainly be a challenge but it will be more of an opportunity for us to offer the right package to the industry, to combine our product to fill up the slot they deserve. For example, today many universities and technical colleges around the country are fully equipped with technical resources and they can share those resources such as technical lab facilities and skilled resources with the recently established institutes such as university colleges like ours, if we focus on this simple concept. It’s a twofold approach, where, both technical colleges and university colleges share our resources to ensure the maximum productivity.

Q: What’s your take on the Government’s move to involve the private sector in this venture?

A: In this university college concept, the Government had taken an initiative to recruit professionals from the private sector to head these organisations from their inception. I as a professional have had experience in working with local as well as multinational giants in Sri Lanka. This has given me an opportunity to share these learnings and best practices and apply those concepts to initiate and build up a culture to fit into the local industries. Some may argue with me in terms of validity and applicability of my thoughts, as the results are yet to be achieved. 

Many arguments, debates and discussions towards building a right balance with public private partnership are still in progress. The five CEOs who’re heading those university colleges were picked after a thorough evaluation and interview process by the Ministry. We always look in to and analyse and take actions recognising the industry demand in value delivery; however keeping in mind our social responsibility and governance aspects being a Government organisation.

Q: How is the University College governed? 

A: We have two Boards; ‘The Board of Studies’ looks into the academic matters of students and resource person development and strategic approaches to ensure the sustainability and competiveness of our resources. Government funds allocated to us in the budget are mainly used to develop and sustain our resource personnel and students’ wellbeing to fulfil social responsibility together with the value delivery.

‘The Board of Management’ represents many experts and professionals from the corporate world, academia as well as the ministry and UNIVOTEC. At that level the focus is taking this institute to be a self-funded entity in the period of at least within 10-15 years’ time. This is a dream with a vision but I am confident the university colleges are capable of achieving it.

Q: What’s the difference between a technical college and a university college of this nature?

A: Both organisations are still under the same ministry portfolio however, technical colleges currently offer free education, and they offer the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) level 4 certificate to youth who have completed GCE O/L OR A/Ls; whereas we provide NVQ Level 6, a very competitive higher diploma in technology only to those who have GCE A/L qualification or NVQ level 4 qualification to follow any of our 10 different diploma programs.

This year, the first batch of our university college commenced in February 2015 and has only four students from NVQ Level 4 stream and the balance almost 99.9% were those who had three passes in GCE A/Ls. I foresee a very high demand with this youth segment whereas students who have NVQ level 4 qualifications find more employment opportunities elsewhere rather than pursuing further higher education. Our target market is unique where we are not only focusing on technical and theoretical knowledge enhancement but on developing right skills and competencies to cater to the industry demand. Ultimately, at the end of the three-year program, students are ready to take over roles as supervisors and junior level managers enriched with lots of specific industry skills and competencies.

We have many technical based educational Institutes in the country but the university colleges were established to fill a vacuum in key areas in the service industry. I mentioned about our resource persons in the college with great pride, as our lecture panel and other academic staff members are very competent graduates between the ages of 25-37 who have experience in their respective fields.

Q: What makes this college stand above the rest?

A: We have the strategic advantage due to many reasons; one being our location, our staff and also the industry exposure, networking and relationships we have built up in our professional career with the industry for the last 20 years. We have managed to partner with the key industry players and made arrangements for students to visit more than 12 companies relevant to their fields. For example Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Keells Supermarket at Crescat Boulevard for the Food Technology students, OZO Hotel, Apegama, Ratmalana Airport and Jetwing Group for Travel & Tour students, Sky Media and President’s Outdoor Media Unit for the students who are  following Television Production and Post Production.

Sri Lanka Customs and BOI for Maritime Logistics students, Hameedia and Salon Classy Cuts for Fashion Design Students, Phoenix Ogilvy for Event Management students and Sri Lanka Telecom for Telecommunication students are to name a few. All those visits were completed during the first six months of their educational career with us at the university college. 

Our focus on these visits was to expose the students to get an understanding to build their career path prior to entering into the formal education in their respective fields. The curriculum and standards inbuilt in the development stage had considered many such aspects in their NVQ 5 and 6 education streams with the six months on the job training. However, we initiated these industry visits as well as invited more than eight guest speakers to share their experience with our students during the foundation course.

This was all possible due to contacts and networks in the industry provided by the members of the Board of Studies Board of Management together with my own professional, social and industry connections, not forgetting the guidance from the Vice Chancellor and the Director General of UNIVOTEC, TVEC and the Ministry officials.

Q: Currently the Sri Lankan tertiary education system has been criticised heavily. Do you think setting up university colleges of this nature will increase knowledge application?

A: The main objective of the Government to set up university colleges is to find a practical solution for this criticism. Whilst accepting that the conventional university graduates are equipped with very high knowledge on their field of study, at the university college we build very skilled and competent youth to apply practical know-how’s they learnt to face the day-to-day industry challenges.

Q: Do you think the increase in the budget allocated for the educational sector will benefit the vocational training sector?

A:  Yes I see a promising future. It’s great news for all academic institutes of this country. I strongly believe that we should be mindful and utilise the funds and all resources meaningfully, effectively and efficiently. From an industry perspective, it’s my personal view that Government funds could be utilised more efficiently for the usage of its available resources. 

As I mentioned before, although the manifestos increasingly focused on technical education, there are many restrictions and guidelines to follow to ensure greater productivity. We all have to prove ourselves and must justify our approach on utilisation of Government funds effectively. To receive funds from the Treasury, I personally welcome this approach and will not see it as a drawback though it will be a great challenge to all of us. 

Q: The brain-drain crisis has affected the country’s productivity immensely. What do you think as an academic head should be done?

A: It’s a very unfortunate situation the country has to face during the last so many years. Products of the free education of Sri Lanka were migrating at an alarming rate. I strongly think this is something to do with each one’s attitude but if we try to limit it, that would be a disincentive to those talented youth to prove their capabilities in the global market.

We as a country should have to look into means of saving some foreign exchange and reducing capital exchange outflow caused due to the brain-drain, by introducing the many avenues for youth to engage in opportunities using their higher education and career paths. 

At our university college we share this concept making every effort to develop the mind-sets of the students, constantly reminding them that their education is provided as a result of the tax payers’ money together with contributions from donor agencies. For example students of specific programs at our university college will pay less than 5% of the total investment we make on them annually.

Q: What are the main challenges you will have to face in the move forward?

A: The main initial challenge is setting up this college completely to run at its full capacity and developing the resource personnel to deliver a competency based education. Currently almost all permanent lecturers as well as many visiting lecturers are from the conventional university education system and they have been used to a certain delivery mechanism which requires to be enhanced with relevant training. As the university education is undergoing significant changes, the resource personnel we acquire in future, as well the development programs we conduct currently for our staff are expected to help us to achieve the this goal in the near future. 

As it is not only about a final exam at the end  of the semester, our focus is on continuous assessments which amount to more than 60% of exams that leads to student centered learning and development activities. In this system, resource personnel may have more work in contact with the students and groom them with right skills and competencies continuously.

I also wish to share that today the expectations of youth are very high. There are different individuals with different hopes. Therefore we are very mindful to deliver the right package to them to ensure they are globally employable so that there will be high return on investment made on them by the country.   

Q: Are there any future plans to affiliate with foreign universities?

A: Yes we do have plans. However, it is too early for us to comment. Current system requires us to register and accredit each diploma program under the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC) prior to awarding diplomas to those students. The higher national diploma will be awarded only after completing an evaluation process for all of the ten diploma programs that we offer. This is to be re-validated every three years which is to ensure that the programs are up-to-date maintaining the required quality expected by the industries.

I am working on this with a few universities, in countries such as Australia, Switzerland, UK, USA, Canada, India, Malaysia and Singapore. I strongly believe that is will in turn build great partnerships to develop our students as well as those university students especially through student exchange programs.

– Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe

Student’s perspective

The CEO of the University College Ratmalana highlighted her dreams to develop the students’ attitude and communication skills, specially the soft skills by establishing a Gavel club and Rotaract club at their college in the near future. 

According to the CEO, these programs will help students to develop their personality, leadership and communication skills and most importantly involve them to contribute to the needy in our society. She further mentioned that the college students will be involved in student exchange programs with Rotaractors and Gavel Club members of other countries which will help them to understand and appreciate multi-national perspectives.

The Daily FT sat with some of the students of the university college to get their perspective on the education they receive.

University College of Ratmalana currently provides nine higher national diplomas: Event Management, Travel & Tour Management, Fashion Design Technology, Television Program Production Technology, Television Post-Production Technology, Maritime and Logistics Management, Food Technology, Electrical Technology and Telecommunication Technology. Further, ICT and English are taught as supplementary to all those students during the entire duration of the program.

All of the students unanimously agreed that this is the only institute they can obtain NVQ 6 higher level diploma in the selected fields. They also highlighted that the Institute provides them with extensive facilities to conduct practicals and continuous assessments whilst the great exposure they gained through industry visits undergone during last seven months.

Amuthalogini Kavinthrajan a student from Jaffna spoke with confidence that she found the Travel and Tour Management Diploma promising because of the growth in the tourism sector the country experiences currently. She highlighted the benefits and exposure she gained through the industry visits completed recently. 

Siddeeka Mohsi a student of Food Technology Diploma said: “I did my A/L in the BIO stream and after that I wanted to pursue a course related to food Technology. I got to know that the university college offers this course through newspapers. I am also aware that once I complete my higher national diploma at our college, I can pursue my degree at the UNIVOTEC. I am very confident that I can build my career path.”

Maduka Weerasinghe who is currently following the Electrical Technology program stated that he chose this route because as a math stream student he couldn’t qualify to attend a conventional university due to the insufficient Z score. 

“Compared to the many other Institutes offer Electrical Technology qualification, I found that the University College Ratmalana is the best place for me in terms of credibility because it’s a Government institute. Facilities and resources available for us and yet to receive provides us the best learning experience,” Weerasinghe added.

The FT interviewed the nine lecturers who are coordinating the diploma programs and according to them the current curriculum and standards designed for their programs are highly relevant to the service industry. 

Methmini Ratnapala, the lecturer in Fashion Design Technology spoke with a passion about her program and skills and competencies to be inbuilt in her students with the exposure to the latest Fashion industry requirements.

Nuwan Bandara and Nimmi Hathiyadeniya, the lecturers in charge of Television Program and Post Production Diplomas have very high expectations towards developing the right talent to the much needed industry requirements. Both mentioned with assurance that their students are talented and these programs will enable them to get into best employment at the end of their educational career.