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Sri Lanka Army

Defender of the Nation

08th July 2016 21:32:54 Hours

The Disabled will Continue to be Productive after RRC Vocational Training

The Ranaviru Resources Centre (RRC), the state-of-the-art training centre for disabled War Heroes of the Army at Hekiththa, Wattala created history on Tuesday (5) afternoon when it successfully completed vocational training modules of the Vocational Training Authority (VTA) and awarded the world-recognized National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) certificate to 126 disabled course attendees during a simple ceremony at the Army Headquarters.

Lieutenant General Crishanthe De Silva, Commander of the Army who has been the tower of strength behind realization of the success of those courses at the RRC attended the occasion as the Chief Guest on the invitation of Brigadier S.K Thiruvanakarusu, Director Rehabilitation, together with the Chairman, VTA, Major General (retd) Gamini Hettiarachchi and a few other senior VTA officials.

Those 126 differently able War Heroes followed two-year long courses in Repairs to Domestic Appliances, Carpentry (buildings) and one-year long courses in Computer Hardware Technology, Computer Assistant Course, Aluminium Industry, Hair Dressing and Styling, Repairs to Three Wheelers and Motorbikes, Landscaping and Mobile Phone Repairing under different NVQ levels before they were qualified after a series of tests and practicals.

In addition, 242 more disabled War Heroes are following basic courses at the RRC as at present and another total of 291 more are also still reaching the final Level 4 in above-mentioned courses to be in consistent with the VTA standards, according to the RRC records.

This first-ever NVQ awarding ceremony for vocationally-qualified disabled War Heroes of the Army was made possible without any interruption, thanks to the support, extended by the VTA by way of providing resource personnel for lectures in the courses, together with different forms of technical assets.

Award of NVQ certificates, headed by Lieutenant General Crishanthe De Silva as the Chief Guest was joined on the stage by Chairman, VTA, Major General (Retd) Gamini Hettiarachchi and Director Training, VTA, Mr N.K Illangasinghe. Brigadier W.H.M Manathunga, Commandant, RRC welcomed the gathering and the Deputy Commandant, RRC raised the vote of thanks.

Major General Aruna Jayasekara, Director General Training, Major General Nanda Udawaththe, Adjutant General and Major General B.A Perera, Director General General Staff and Major General Milinda Peiris, Chief of Staff in sequence were also associated with the award of certificates to those achievers before the Commander gave away certificates to them under specific phases.

Lightening of the traditional oil lamp, observance of one-minute silence in memory of fallen War Heroes, colourful dancing features and a special documentary of the RRC were among the day’s agenda. 

At the end of the award ceremony, the Commander of the Army as the Chief Guest addressed the gathering and praised the achievers since their future contribution to our society would continue to be productive, despite their physical disability.   

Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission of Sri Lanka took steps to introduce the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) system under 7 Levels and the NVQ level 7 is equivalent to the Bachelor’s degree qualification in both state and private universities. Students can enrol the M.Sc. or any other postgraduate programme after completion of the NVQ Level 7. Those completing the NVQ Level 5, can enter into the 2nd year in most of the foreign universities, provided the relevant field of education is available at such universities.