EDEX is a multi-stakeholder initiative promoted by the Royal College Union, the alumni association of Royal College Colombo, Sri Lanka. Launched as the annual social responsibility project of Royal College Union with the vision To empower Sri Lankan youth to be globally competitive EDEX has emerged from being an education and careers exhibition to a multi disciplinary voluntary service organisation that serves the nation with many value additions, including EDEX Expo, EDEX Careers, EDEX Think Green, EDEX Sithuwam, EDEX Magazine and EDEX Live Your Dream.
The Presidential Secretariat and Sri Lanka’s Ministries of Education, Higher Education, Youth Affairs and Skills Development and Labour and Labour Relations have continuously endorsed EDEX. EDEX has now transformed to be a unique multi faceted organisation sustained by a passionate group of volunteers who contribute their time, effort, professional expertise and even personal finances at times of need, to make a positive difference in Sri Lankan society. Over the years the EDEX annual career fair and exhibition has become the primer career fair in the country and a national event with the primary the exhibition taking place at BMICH, Colombo followed by a secondary exhibition taking pace at Queens Hotel, Kandy a few weeks later. It is organized by the Royal College Union (RCU) in collaboration with the Government of Sri Lanka.
Roots of EDEX stretch far back to late 1990s, when the Royal College Union started to organise annual career guidance programmes for the benefit of senior students. These seminars revealed a lacklustre attitude among most students and even their parents whose minds were fixed to become doctors, engineers, accountants and lawyers – the kind of professions widely regarded to be the only ‘elite’ ones at the time. Although new lucrative career options were emerging in numerous fields most students were not very keen to consider different options. With limited opportunities of admission to local universities in the preferred fields and in the absence of credible optional career guidance, these youth wasted a great deal of time, effort and money, failing to realize economic and opportunity costs of unfocused and ad-hoc career planning.
A need to portray different choices, options and opportunities in post secondary educational arena in the fields of higher education, technical education, vocational training and skills development leading to gainful employment, was thus realised. As it was impossible for a seminar to showcase all such opportunities, EDEX was created as a comprehensive platform for service providers to educate students. It was launched as the pioneering ‘national education and careers expo’ to offer benefits to the entire student and youth population of the country, filling a long felt need for such a national platform. The organizers realized the need for such a national programme to overcome the impact of perennial frustrations among youth that cause widespread and devastating social and economic ramifications. The very first EDEX Expo was held in Colombo in 2004, and continued annually since then. In 2006, a secondary exhibition was introduced in the hill capital Kandy - the second largest city, thus making EDEX Expo the largest national scale twin exhibition in the country.
Growing with participant and visitor numbers year on year, EDEX is now the single largest nationwide platform connecting Sri Lankan youth with choices, options and opportunities in post-secondary, graduate and postgraduate levels, technical and vocational training and skills development, leading to gainful employment.[1].