Sri Lanka and India get down to business

[Harold Schiffman]

Forwarded From: edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu


Guardian



Sri Lanka and India get down to business



Fearful of being left behind by India's growing dominance of the
international outsourcing industry, Sri Lanka has launched an English
language learning initiative aimed at raising workers' skills. In
contrast to Bangladesh, which has appealed for English language
training help from Britain's Department for International Development
(27m to gain "language of prosperity", April 4), the Sri Lankan
government is enlisting expertise from India. President Mahinda
Rajapaksa last month invited leading language training providers from
India to meet Sri Lankan investors to explore joint ventures at a
three-day "English Teaching Business Mela" in Colombo. The "English as
a Life Skill" initiative is intended to provide special loans to
50,000 young people aged between 18 and 24 over three years, to help
them access training in work-related English skills.



Full story:

http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,,2281758,00.html





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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone: (215) 898-7475
Fax: (215) 573-2138

Email: haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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