Nov 22, Colombo: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is partnering with Microsoft to introduce a new training curriculum developed with the assistance of the American information technology giant for four key sectors of the Sri Lankan economy, the Embassy of the United States of America announced in Colombo yesterday (21).

According to an Embassy press release, USAID and Microsoft are co-financing the $236,000 project, which is known as “Unlimited Potential” to boost IT usage of Sri Lanka’s agricultural, apparel, tourism, and media/journalism sectors. Info Share, a non-profit firm that develops IT solutions to non-profit development organizations will implement the project. Unlimited Potential is a specially tailored worldwide curriculum by Microsoft.

The program intends to train at least 11,000 people, and provide scholarships to 2,000 needy students, many in the North-Central and Eastern provinces. It has already started training about 110 instructors to teach the courses, which will be offered through various training organizations under the auspices of the Vocational Training Authority and private sector institutions.

Press release further stated that the target of the program is to retrain and regenerate youth in the East and North Central provinces who have been previously involved in activities associated with the conflict.