Over 1,200 students to graduate at 4th Annual Fusion Education Award Ceremony

The fourth annual Fusion Education Award Ceremony is set to take place next month with over 1,200 students from across the Island set to graduate. The ceremony is a proud and prestigious occasion where dreams will come true. Proud parents will cry, students will laugh, smile and take photos that will adorn walls for a lifetime and a thousand careers of some of Sri Lanka’s brightest young people will be launched.

The award ceremony will celebrate the achievements of over 1,200 students from some of Sri Lanka’s poorest communities as they receive their Diploma in Computer Application. It is Sri Lanka’s only nationwide graduation event for students from rural communities and marks the culmination of years of hard work.

The event will also witness the twenty most outstanding graduates from Fusion Education’s KIDS 1 and KIDS 2 programs that offer recognised ICT qualifications for children aged 5-9 and 10-14 respectively.  

Fusion Education is Sri Lanka’s leading ICT education service for disadvantaged and rural communities. It is delivered through a unique network of over 7,000 rural telecentres in 25 districts across Sri Lanka that enables students to access high quality learning within their own communities.

The social enterprise is calling for support from Sri Lankan industry due to the high costs associated with offering the event. Fusion Manager Isura Silva said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for students from poor and rural backgrounds and communities to experience a traditional graduation event. We’re bringing students from all over the country to celebrate their remarkable achievements and we hope that Sri Lankan companies will want to support these students too.”

“Fusion Education is a not for profit enterprise so every penny we have is reinvested in the futures of young people in Sri Lanka. We make sure to deliver vital ICT education to some of the poorest areas in the country and it is right that they have experience an appropriate celebrations for their hard work and success.”

Fusion Education offers recognised ICT qualifications for children and young people that are 47% cheaper than the closest competitor making learning accessible for many of the poorest children in Sri Lanka. For those families who are still unable to afford the course, Fusion Education offers fully funded scholarships for those most in need to ensure that Sri Lanka’s young people have the best chance of success. Fusion Education exists to empower young people in rural communities through economic and personal development whilst maximising local knowledge and resources.  Information and Communications Technology is one of Sri Lanka biggest growth industries and currently employs over 50,000 individuals. The island is the fifth largest exporter of software in the world yet computer literacy is still only 16%. A lack of skilled ICT staff is an increasing concern for Sri Lanka’s businesses and Fusion Education’s DICA program is designed to address these shortfalls, support industry and empower individuals.

The students receiving their certificates at the Fusion Education Award Ceremony have all graduated from the Diploma in Computer Application course. The qualification has been designed and produced in association with an expert resource pool at the University of Moratuwa within TVEC (Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission) guidelines.

The DICA qualification is a nationally recognised qualification that ensures all graduates have achieved a high level of knowledge around the practical and theoretical use of information and communications technologies. The course has been uniquely designed for poorer, less educated rural communities and is accessed through rural telecentres to overcome an environment of still developing infrastructure.

Special guests at the event will include Dr. A.T Ariyatne (Sarvodaya Founder), Government Officials from ICTA, TVEC and other institutions, senior representatives of the Sri Lankan media and senior IT professionals from the world’s biggest IT companies. They will be joined by senior representatives of organisations that are supporters of Fusion including the World Bank, Etisalat, Dialog, HSBC, Microsoft, Aitken Spence and Lafarge.

Sarvodaya-Fusion is Sri Lanka’s foremost organisation for ICT for Development and Mobile for Development. The organisation exists to support the ‘e-empowerment of rural communities’ through a range of sustainable services. Fusion’s innovative services were recently highlighted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in their annual international review for the world leading Smart Village project. The organisation pioneered the use of rural telecentres and in 2009 launched Sri Lanka’s first ever Mobile for development application for rural trading called ‘FarmerNet’.

Fusion collaborates with Government, corporations, communities and international development agencies to support rural communities throughout Sri Lanka. The organisation is a part of the decorated Sarvodaya Shramanda movement, the oldest and largest NGO in Sri Lanka.