A Tea Factory Learning Center was opened at the National Institute of Plantations Management (NIPM) by State Minister of Company Estate Reforms, Tea Estate Related Crops, Tea Factory Modernization and Tea Export Promotion, Kanaka Herath and Minister of Export Agriculture, Ramesh Pathirana recently.
The aim of the learning center is to enhance the practical knowledge of the students undergoing educational courses at NIPM which is under certain conditions is not fulfilled by the industry internships provided to the students at present during the course period. Thus with the opening of the new learning center a change to the course curriculum is expected.
“It is crucial to encourage entrepreneurship within the plantation sector to boost up the economy,” Minister of Plantation, Ramesh Pathirana said. And all the necessary support will be provided by the government to develop the education curriculum at NIPM which plays a vital role in providing good educated man power to the plantation industry.
Speaking at the event, State Minister of Company Estate Reforms, Tea Estate Related Crops, Tea Factory Modernization and Tea Export Promotion, Kanaka Herath said that a proposal should be made to establish one center to coordinate all the different courses provided by different institutions in the Plantation sector. “Equally it is important that such a responsibility should be given to NIPM,” he added.
Director / Chief Executive Officer, NIPM, Prasad Dharmasena said that this is only the first stage and they hope to expand the learning center to accommodate basic machineries needed by the Rubber and Coconut plantations in the near future as stages two and three. Thus a complete learning center will be established for the students to get a complete practical knowledge along with the theoretical parts learned.
The constructed tea factory learning center has a capacity of 300 green leaf kilos where the total investment for the project was handled by the NIPM itself which was approximately 24 million rupees. The learning center would also pave the way for students to carry out research projects related to the tea plantation sector. At present only the basic machinery needed by the tea plantation industry is available where more required machinery will be added later on.
