The Hybrid Professional Development Program (HPDP) on Public-Private Partnership in Practice for Transportation Sector Projects for selected staff from the Ministry of Ports and Highways (MPH), Sri Lanka commenced on 28 October 2013. The program is a result of the initial discussion held between Mr. R. W. R. Pemasiri, Secretary of MPH and Dr. Naveed Anwar, Executive Director of AIT Consulting on 1 July 2013 in Sri Lanka, followed by a meeting in AIT held on 29 July 2013.
HPDP, also known as the Hybrid eLearning Project, was conceptualized and developed at AIT Consulting (AITC), Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, to enable wider access to quality professional programs through a combination of distance and classroom approaches and provide access to the innovative AITC eLearning Tool. Specifically, the HPDP for MPH combined the vision and strengths of AIT for the professional development of MPH personnel that would address their needs in the development of Sri Lanka. The program focused on the collaborative partnering between public and private sectors that in some form or the other has been fairly common in the construction industry, especially in the transportation sector.
Ten engineers were selected to join the program, beginning with the online component of the seven-topic program. The classroom training for these participants was held at AIT Conference Center, in partnership with AIT Extension from 8 to 15 December 2013. This customized program is scheduled for completion in January 2014.
