The project will serve multiple purposes which are real requirements of our Lions and society at large, today. The Center has designed to offer vocational training programs to cater to the needs of four main client categories as given below.
All the programs that will be designed and delivered will be geared toward the vocational development of these five categories of clients identified. The programs will develop both the soft and hard skills of the participants.
Developing soft skills of the entire society has become a great need if we are to face the challenges of the complex and diverse world today. Further, the need of possessing strong soft skills among the workforce at any level has become a must. However, in our formal education system, there is no proper education and training on developing soft skills are provided at present nor in the past. As a result, even after the graduation of a student, the level of soft skills remains at a low level to the extent that they become failures at the place of work due to this weakness. Most of our graduates and others who are in the job market are weak in soft skills such as leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, stress management, time management, and such areas.
Firstly, attending to the vocational needs of the differently able persons and poor youth will have a direct impact on ‘alleviation of poverty’ which is very much in line with the mission of our founder Melvin Jones and fulfilling the vocational needs of differently able persons is one of the thrust areas of Lions International. Therefore, we are hoping to provide vocational training to differently-abled youth according to their requirements and presently working on specific programs in consultation with some organizations representing differently-abled persons. We will be paying attention to training them on appropriate computer software programs which can also be good substitutes for replacing the ‘Brail system’ for the visually impaired. We also have identified that there is a sheer need for recognizing differently-abled people in society.
Secondly. It is a dire need of our employees to develop themselves vocationally and one of the weakest areas of these employees issue soft skills. Therefore, we have lined up several specific programs to improve the soft skills of employees falling into senior management, middle management, and floor level employees of companies situated especially in the Biyagama Industrial Zone and other areas. These programs will deal with the following broad areas in soft skills.
Concerning developing hard skills of employees, most of these hard skills are being developed through ‘on the job’ training programs conducted by the employer- specific companies. However, there may be certain areas of hard skills that require training by professional organizations. These training programs will be organized by the LCVTC together with relevant professional organizations that provide recognized qualifications. For example, certain qualifications in engineering, civil construction, architecture, quantity surveying, etc.
The center will pay special attention to providing training in Information Technology (IT) and we have already identified the following specific programs however, this is not an exclusive list that will be extended depending on the requirements of the participants and their companies.