Following on
from my previous blog posting on the inability of a course specifically
designed to ensure graduates who complete this specially vocation related
syllabus, to provide gainful employment, I would like to make the following
observations and invite comment.
UVA WELLASSA
University on the outskirts of Badulla was constructed on the premise that
those who graduate from their vocation related courses would find NO difficulty
in obtaining gainful employment in their particular field of study.
Thus, when I
enquired from this graduate, if he had taken steps to search for employment in
the related field of study, the answer was in the affirmative, and what was
worse, was that his fellow classmates were in the same predicament. I am
picking on ANIMAL HUSBANDRY specifically, both because I am a farmer with NO
TRAINING in either Agriculture or Animal Husbandry. In many senses I would have
liked to have had the knowledge these graduates have in this field, and to
think both Agriculture and Animal Husbandry graduates are unable to find work
in related fields and are looking in other directions is a tragedy in itself, especially
as the state has paid handsomely to provide an education to them, at the expense
of training farmers who are actually engaged in this same field, so that as a
Country we will be able to develop a culture of those going into the above
fields with the necessary tertiary degrees!
The reason as I
have already discussed at length in my various blogs, especially www.villagerinsrilanka.blogspot.com
is that the font of knowledge required in Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
exceeds that required of a Medical Doctor or Specialist and if a University can
train these people, so they are equipped with the technical knowledge needed
for this purpose, we in Sri Lanka CAN REACH the next level in food production,
namely that of efficiency, productivity, and optimum use of resources currently
hugely wasted.
The specific
example I quoted to the Graduate who spoke to me about his inability to get a
job in Animal Husbandry was that the person who milks my cows is someone who
has done it for 30 years, in the way he is used to and who will NOT change his
ways. I know that just by milking techniques I can immediately double the
yield, and with further improvement in the nutrition and feed, and basic care
of the animal, again double the yield for a 4 fold increase if I had some
practical knowledge, and expertise, to which I have not expended resources, and
further with the right mix of animal double the output further, leading to an 8
fold increase from present!!!! That is the challenge facing us farmers, and
that is the solution the state was expecting by producing vocation specific
graduates.
The unknown
factor here is if taking students in with the required Z score is the answer,
or if there is a rigorous aptitude test needed to further supplement the Z
scores, though I do know that there is some kind of selection based on aptitude
too at UVA WELLASSA!
1 comment:
so why not hire one of those students to expand your milk production 8 fold? poor cows. i'd suggest banning the whole dairy and animal rearing industries, as animals are not machines but rather living creatures capable of feeling suffering. have pity on those animals!
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