Improving the quality of vocational training in Sri Lanka

Context

Despite reforms in the past years, public vocational education and training courses and qualifications in Sri Lanka still face the challenge of training a workforce effectively to give them the skills and capabilities needed on the labour market. This mismatch affects the employability of students with national-level qualifications.

Systematic involvement of the private sector in designing the practical implementation of training measures remains very limited. There is a lack of teaching staff with the necessary practice-relevant competences that correspond to the current state of the art. The managers of the institutions lack the skills to flexibly design and implement labour-market-oriented education and training programmes that lead to employment.

Objective

Young people from all sections of Sri Lanka’s population are using demand-based cooperative vocational training courses.

Approach

• The project works with private-sector partners in the garment industry, logistics, ICT, optometry tourism and construction to make training better oriented to employment, to align on-the-job training experience with industry demands and to further increase private sector participation in technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
• Special emphasis has been given to creating inclusive and gender-streamlined vocational education for youth with disabilities and from marginalised communities together with the support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).
• The project assists in improving the capabilities of teachers and instructors in various technical areas and supports training institutes in shifting to e-learning methods.
• The project advises the Ministry on political, strategic and legal reforms needed to create better framework conditions for TVET in Sri Lanka. 

Last update: April 2022