International Institute of Health Sciences (IIHS), Sri Lanka’s premier and leading healthcare education Institute renowned for the high quality education provided for nurses in Sri Lanka, have embarked on a commendable venture of enhancing nursing education and catapulting nursing care into the global arena.

The groundbreaking programme ‘Lankan Nurses’ aims to strengthen the healthcare industry and will unfold island wide, focusing on training nurses to meet the needs of the First World. The programme envisages to empower Sri Lankan youth mainly those living in rural areas. Centers will be established at a national level enabling students to enrol and access the programme easily. Currently measures are underway to set up learning centers in strategic locations such as Kurunegala, Kandy, Colombo & Anuradhapura to name a few.

Furthermore the students who enrol for this program are granted a student loan from a leading private sector bank in Sri Lanka. The loan will be facilitated under the “Study Now Pay Later” concept where, the student is only required to repay the acquired loan after the completion of the course.

‘Lankan Nurses’ will lay the foundation to a new avenue of exporting skilled labour. The programme will consist of a 3 year Diploma in Nursing which will be backed by the facilitation of loans to help fund the education of the youth. Aligning with the corporate values of IIHS, this approach increases the accessibility of globally recognised nursing programmes to youth around Sri Lanka. Upon successful completion of the programme, students are eligible for guaranteed jobs in private sector healthcare / hospital services. During that time, they can also upgrade themselves to Bachelors programs. These special considerations have been made to help the rural youth to obtain international nursing education and qualifications which will thereby assure them of local and international job opportunities.

Commenting on the uplifting programme, Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe CEO, Co-founder, said “In the face of this current situation, we have clearly being made to realize and understand the importance of well-trained and knowledgeable nursing professionals not only in the local context but also internationally. We have closely looked at reaching out to the rural youth and those in other parts of Sri Lanka with the well thought intention of exporting skilled labour and creating new job opportunities globally.”

“In countries located in the Middle East and South East Asia including Singapore, there is high demand for nurses. Furthermore, over 100,000 nurses are to be recruited for employment in First World countries, such as UK, Australia and Canada,” stated Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe elaborating further.

This initiative is a part of IIHS’s long-term contribution to the Government’s Policy framework ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendor’ which aims to support economic growth by increasing female participation and providing additional employment opportunities for women, youth and healthcare professionals.

As Sri Lanka’s premier International University Learning Center (IULC), IIHS for 20 years has offered programmes ranging from Certificates to PhDs. The programmes are offered in partnership with leading global universities securing pathways and opportunities for students to realize their international dreams at an affordable price. IIHS is a front-runner in adopting new trends in education providing a multitude of choices and opportunities to its student community aligning with the current Sri Lankan government policies of making SL a regional hub for education.