Ceylon Electrical & Mechanical Engineers was established in Army Head Quarters on 1st October 1951. The EME detachment of AHQ, EME Trade School and EME Repair Platoon of 1st Anti-Aircraft Guns Regiment which already existed were merged to this new unit. Subsequently the School of EME was shifted to present RHQ premises and located in the area of present motor transport section in view of improving the technical knowledge of EME tradesmen and conducting trade tests. The school consisted with two class rooms, office, store section and a fitting section. Initially there had been 10 to 12 students in each trade course and opportunities were given to the solders of Navy and Air force also to attend to technical courses.
Later the school was shifted to Malay Street where present Defense SVC School is located and an officer commanding was appointed in charge of the school. Lt JMJ De Silva was appointed as the first officer commanding of the School of EME. All trade courses and trade tests of soldiers were conducted by this school. In 1988 this school started conducting Zeroing Courses, MTO Courses and MT SGT Courses for all arms. There had been a medium work shop of the Department of Agriculture at Present location of the School of EME. There had been a squadron of 4 SLASC located in the adjoining land where fuel pumping station was functioning.
There had been a necessity to establish a field work shop in order to cater for military vehicles and equipments in Kandy area. Therefor the medium work shop of Agriculture Department was acquired to establish this field work shop. Subsequently the School of EME was re located at this camp on 2nd September 1991. In view of expanding the school of EME arrangements were made to acquire the land belonged to 4 SLASC. The fuel pump had not been removed from the camp due to the importance of the location and ease of access to all vehs in and around Kandy. All these years the School of EME was commanded by an officer commanding. The appointment was elevated to Commandant School of EME on 06th August 1996 and Maj TN Jayasuriya was the first Commandant of the School of EME. During his period the school was improved with a small arms repair training section, vehicles repair training section, Instrument repair training section, a training wing, Library, HQ Building and an officer's mess.
School of EME was registered under Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC) as a grade "C" training institute for 18 technical courses in 12th January 2008. The only technical training institute administer by the Army with Army personal is School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. In the past for the development of knowledge of Craftsman and to hold professional oriented examinations EME Vocational School and the Vocational Examination Centre were located Parsons Road, Regimental Centre premises. After that, the EME Vocational School and a section of the Vocational Examination Centre were taken to the place where the Defense Service School was located and, on 2nd September 1991 it was installed at Gannoruwa, a land with a historical back ground, facing Mahaweli River where Mechanical Workshop of Agriculture Department was located.
When the EME Vocational School and the Vocational Examination Center were located at Parsons Road in the premises of the Regimental Centre it was consisting of two class rooms, an office for the commanding officer, stores, and welding section. At the inception, while a vocational course was started with 10 – 12 personnel those from the Navy and Air Force too attended. From this place the vocational training course of Craftsmen and vocational examinations were held with the command and control of an officer command. During this time even civilians were given vocational training through this and the certificate issued were well recognized by recognized institution when offering employments.
On 12th January 2008 this training school was registered as a “C” grade training school by Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC). As a result, for those soldiers who follow courses in this school qualify to sit for NVQ examination directly. In order to improve the standard of the EME Training School for international recognition and to obtain national level modifications, the Training School had taken action to improve subject matters and relevant facilities. As a result, from 25th October 2017, for the Welding Course this school had qualified to issue NVQ Level 4 certificates for technical soldiers. In the year 2018 a rapid development took place in the EME school training section and The Welding, Tinkering, Machinist and vehicle Mechanic courses were qualified to receive NVQ level 4, national level certificates. Presently School of EME is planning to obtain the NVQ recognitions for the Instrument Technology (as the ‘TV and Radio Repair’), AC and Refrigerator and Painter courses.
Currently the school is conducting 22 different courses and 48 courses as at different levels (according to the Army rank structure).