Idea 335 of 500. Cluster 16: Education and the exam funnel
University short courses sold to the children of Sri Lankans abroad: a summer in Peradeniya
The mechanism, from the book
177,000 qualify every year and 45,000 get a place. The other 130,000 are a market that nobody has built for, and the polytechnic is not a second choice when it leads to a job.
Every idea in cluster 16 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Write a 2-week summer programme in outline: lectures, visits, a stay near Peradeniya and a price. Send it to Sri Lankan associations and language schools abroad, and ask parents to register interest with a small deposit. Then take the list of deposits to the university department concerned and ask about hosting. A list of paying families is what makes the university say yes.
- Who pays first
- Sri Lankan parents abroad who want their teenagers to know the island, and will pay for a supervised summer with a certificate.
- What leaves today
- The children of Sri Lankans abroad visit as tourists or not at all, and the university earns nothing from their connection to the island.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. OneThe Letter That Says Yes and Means No
177,588 qualified, 45,000 placed
More from cluster 16
- 321Employer-owned technical colleges: the hotels train the chefs, the port trains the planners
- 322Apprenticeship brokers who match a firm to a student and handle the paperwork, for a fee from the firm
- 323Nursing colleges to the British and Australian standard, with the return clause built into the fees
- 324Electrician, plumber and welder certification centres whose certificates are recognised abroad
- 325English tutoring by video for the districts, at a price a family can pay, with a test at the end
- 326Tuition classes that publish their pass rates, so that parents can compare
Idea 335 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.