‘Future Minds Awards’ is the newest addition to the Future Minds (FM) portfolio. This idea has been forwarded by the energetic FM team with the intension of benchmarking the educational and training institutes and support services providers in terms of quality and credibility of their services provided. This brand new feature helps purifying a key objective of the FM which is to eliminate information deficit by offering opportunities for institutes and students to meet and interact. Hence the educational and training institutes and support services providers get an opportunity to further consolidate their market position in the island while the students are able to find their partner in higher education, vocational training and professional training in a better and an informed manner.

FM team always appreciates and values the trustworthy education & training and other services provided by institutes partaking in the FM Educational Exhibition. Therefore, this event has been made open to all FM participants under University Education, Vocational Training, Professional Training and Support Services categories. The institutes will be evaluated based on a criteria designed paying careful consideration to the type of sectors of education and training, sensitive elements related to businesses, ethics and norms of the industry, and legal aspects. Therefore it is believed that this event will immensely help institutes to display their speciality and strengths to prospective students.

The value of the award / endorsement is attributed to the credibility of the evaluation criterion and the Panel of Judges. With that in mind the FM team will formalise an independent Panel of Judges comprised of professionals and influential personalities from the government authorities, universities, foreign missions, professional bodies and respective industries. The Panel of Judges will ensure that the Awards judging structure and process maintain the highest standards of professional excellence. Hence they will provide expert advice to the Organizers of the FM Awards on both the technical and strategic aspects of the Awards.

The evaluation will be done in stages. Mainly institutes will be evaluated under 4 categories; University Education, Vocational Training, Professional Training and Support Services. Initially institutes will be evaluated through a common criterion in which the number of participants will be short listed. Thereafter they will be further evaluated for awards. The common criterion and specific criterion for awards will be designed by a set of professionals from the universities and the industry. Institutes will also be evaluated during the FM Educational Exhibition wherein points will mainly be awarded for successful efforts made in delivering information to students.

The FM Awards will be made with the aim of highlighting unique strengths of educational & training institutes and support services providers. Hence there will be talent awards in addition to special awards. Each award will be packaged with gifts and value additions according to the type of award.

The FM Awards Night will be organised in a majestic way and held in a grand location in December 2010. This special occasion will be graced by both local and foreign guests of high calibre. The Awards Night will be organised in such a way that it will be the most colourful event of the year in its own right.

At present ‘FM Awards’ is limited to educational and training institutes and support services providers in Sri Lanka and overseas who are taking part in FM Educational Exhibition in the current year. Those institutes that are interested in taking part in the FM Awards will need to forward an application to the FM Secretariat and a specimen application will be made available to them in June 2010.