Edification for Conflict Prevention & Economic Opportunities

Incorporating ICT for the purpose of developing the education and skills of the youth, can be used as a mechanism for reconciliation. As important as it is to combat social issues in the physical world, we must ensure an effective collaboration with the digital space for a competent youth workforce.

A rural community; more underfunded and inadequately staffed the school would be. Even if schooling opportunities were provided, parents may opt to taking their children out of school to help produce an income or for domestic duties. Thereby creating a generation of uneducated, unskilled, less integrated youth in the country.

Our Solution: A holistic, simple and flexible approach using technology to build a sustainable youth workforce whilst fostering reconciliation and peace building.

A working model that South Asia can use in the future. We believe that a well-designed skills hub in fusion with a mobile application and cross-regional learning and corporation would help in creating opportunities for youth to self-learn and develop skill. 

The Skill-Hubs, designed in a manner that are friendly and safe; an informative space where everybody matters. These hubs develop the necessary skills and competencies to move beyond the adverse effects of conflict. Hence we have identified Vocational Centers across the island to facilitate an environment that shall be equipped with ICT infrastructure enabling access to e-Libraries, career guidance, course content and materials in all 3 languages, with special emphasis on content related to English, Science and Mathematics. Special focus will be given to ensure that women and people with disabilities have equal access. A mobile application would be created for all users to have the ability to access certain content even from their own homes. Cross-Regional Cooperation and Learning will also be enabled; student exchanges, joint programs, twinning institutes, Virtual Tours, flipped classroom projects, and the formation of online networks would be also used to assure the harmonization of education and skills qualification to support labor mobility and regional economic integration. Bridging divides promotes peace, dialogue and information exchange, therefore playing an important role in creating a more diverse, skilled youth force through modern technology.

In this post-conflict, multi-ethnic, multilingual and multi-religious society, Education and Peace building go hand in hand to promote and achieve social cohesion. An educated society reconciles all differences peacefully and nonviolently. Education and skills development promotes independent thinking, which thereby improves communication skills, reduces poverty and creates a tolerant yet politically involved society. Education must be the core focus in all aspects of nation-building and is imperative that every citizen has access to education, resources, and opportunity. Thus, an educated youth would undoubtedly be the foundation for a harmonious nation and a skilled workforce. 

• Factors: Unemployment of youth, underutilization of women and people with disability in the work force, has negatively impacted skills development and peace.
• Research: Reports by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Tertiary Vocational Education Commission clearly indicate the dire need of a skilled workforce. It is evident with the skills-gap a virtual platform is required as a complementary tool to improve the impact of peace building and skills development.
• Impact: Greater access, use of technology, content and engagement in peace-building through dialogue and human interactions; ensures a sustainable project whilst fostering a viable economy.

To increase the standards of education, bridging the skills gap and creating a sustainable youth workforce whilst ensuring that women and those with disabilities have equal access to learning and skill development, and to ensure that senior citizens knowledge of ICT increase. This would be possible through the transformation of existing Vocational training centers to ‘Skill-Hubs’ in war affected and rural areas, providing learning up to Diploma level to all citizens, thereby bridging the ethnic divide and creating a foundation of reconciliation and peace building. Customized technology and mobile applications shall be used to deploy this solution free of charge.    

Automated tests will allow users to self-assess, and assist the administrators/trainers to monitor the progress of users and award certifications as required. - Improve Standards of Education, and thereby reduce the Skills Gap of 150,000 entering the job market without any skill development program

Monitor the statistics of user accounts created and performance progress - Improving the IT Literacy rates of Females to 30%, Senior Citizens to 10%, Rural areas to 30% and Estate areas to 15% by 2020.

Feedback from workshops and training on culture, conflict resolution and current affairs - Bridging the ethnic divide and creating a foundation for reconciliation and peace building

Despite revolutionary advances in modern life, technology has failed to transform learning, schools and the education system in general. This would be the first in Sri Lanka that technology would be used across the board to educate, train and equip youth to the adaption of technology. Integration among different disciplines to create a more comprehensive set of resources based on individual performances, as each user will have an account that would enable us to map out the user’s education/career history. Lesson planning tools, skills development, career guidance and mechanisms of peace building, would thereby create a holistic-approach to the problem.

Skills-hubs in essence are for Youth and members of all communities. We have chosen areas of Sri Lanka that are unable to access modern technology and information, whilst ensuring that these hubs improve engagement and interaction among communities. Technology would primarily be used as a mechanism to enrich and transform lives, to minimize social divide and to help in building a workforce that’s current. Therefore, to enable such a human-centered approach, content and resources would be combined with research, modern education formulas, human-computer interaction and data mining. We aim to make the accessibility of such technology simple and humane.

We aim to provide a simple, effective and sustainable solution. The objective is to bridge the skill gap, ethnic divide and digital divide. Therefore when designing content, i.e. skills-hub and mobile-application, the needs of children, youth, adults, and even those with disabilities, shall be comprehensively considered.

The skills-hub would be accessible free of charge to community at different time slots, and each user would have a customized page based on their needs and education/skills levels. Workshops too shall be provided, whilst the mobile application would have customized content that would enable users to have 24-hour access to information.

Our plan is to equip existing underutilized training centers as a key avoidance to reinvent the wheel. Our pilot project is to make use of 5 centers and convert to ‘Skills-hubs’. However, as we grow, more hubs would be established to create a unified approach to skill development. It is important that we first build partnerships with the Government and Vocational Institutes to ensure that the policy is in line with the project and long-term. We have discussed this solution with the TVEC and ICTISC, and we plan to have discussions with the private sector with regard to financial support and resources. A skilled workforce and political stability is essential for the private sector to flourish. We have received positive response thus far. Furthermore the solicitation of in-kind support, especially in relation to research and online content, private donations, grants and fundraisers, would be considered to continuously sustain ourselves.

Attitude towards mainstream culture and gender roles may negatively influence the receptibility of this solution, as many rural communities are rigid to change especially in relation to women's education. This may impact the success of our solution. Political Instability, may affect any potential investment opportunities and Partnerships, as funding is a key factor in ensuring that all facets of this project is functional. It is equally important that job opportunities are available to such youth, as the unavailability of jobs would thereby demotivate youth to continuously follow and use such hubs. Thus Government policy must go hand in hand.

With a War that ended in 2009, it is of importance that reconciliation takes place. Skilled, educated youth will steer the country to a better future. Thus, through the integration of technology we wish to create a workforce that is understanding of each other and connected with each other on a community level preventing any further ethnic division.

As ‘Solve’ was born out of MIT, it is truly a movement that is committed in taking initiatives to solve global issues by breaking economic and cultural barriers using technology. This project wishes to solve an issue; breaking all divides and barriers.

• Tertiary & Vocational Education Commission (TVEC)
• Information & Communications Technology Industry Skills Council (ICTISC)
• Professor Rajiva Wijesinha

We do not believe in competition, as a synergized approach would be key.