Sri Lanka’s youth employment challenge

The educational system seems  not be enhancing the skills that are valued by the employers particularly of those in the private sector, and in turn fail to be hired by their prospective employers. At the same time, youth are either not interested in the available jobs or have no job satisfaction.
Statistics on career outcomes of Sri Lankan university graduates show that unemployment among young adults (aged 25-29) and among ‘educated individuals’ have been high as 18 percent and 11 percent in recent years. Statistics also depict that unemployment among educated females is significantly higher than educated males.
According to Central Bank’s statistics office, for year 2011, Sri Lanka's unemployment fell to 4.2 percent from 4.9 percent a year earlier. Here, the number of state workers has increased to 1.232 million from 1,219 million a year earlier. State workers made up 14.3 percent of the employed while private sector workers had fallen from 41.2 percent to 40.4 percent last year.
Among the diverse views that surface, the issues related to youth unemployment seem to be common among many stakeholders.   It’s necessary to see why the education imparted at undergraduate levels is not marketable, and the various issues related to youth unemployment in our country.
Marketability
The survey on ‘Career outcomes of the Sri Lankan University Graduates’ carried out by the Manpower and Employment Department observed that Arts subjects such as History and Archaeology, Languages and Political Science need to be examined for the possibility of offering differentiated academic programmes which are marketable in the current scenario and have a demand in the labour market.
It stated that the negative public image on the Arts degrees should be changed systematically, since it is extremely harmful to some Arts graduates who might have chosen the Arts subject streams, on their preference. However had they chosen differently they would have higher employability potential. The survey has also revealed that relatively higher proportions of Sinhala and Tamil medium graduates have remained unemployed compared to their English medium counterparts. The report observed that high competency in English is recognized as an added advantage in many aspects.
Rote learning
According certain analysts, there is lot of rote learning in our universities today, with less emphasis on individual practical learning. 
“There is very little focus on doing one’s own research and solving own problems.  Coming from a solutions point of view, there is an issue of how much participation is there in the academic environment…. asking questions, engaging the professors, looking at real-world problems, making it a lively learning experience. Those are not currently emphasized,” Economist and United National Party (UNP) MP Dr. Harsha de Silva says.
“The attitudes of both students and teachers and the objectives of a university education must come in for a re-thinking.  It is necessary to determine what you want from a graduate, how a graduate applies his subject knowledge in real world situations.  In order to do that, the professors also must be up-to-date.  They must do the research, they must publish. So, it’s both ways.  If you look at the faculties, look at the journals, how much of academic research happens in Sri Lankan universities today?”
“Unless the professors research and publish, there is little that can be transferred to the students on an on-going basis.  Things change.  Certain professors teach from notes that are ten years old and are not up-to-date.  When that happens, the students also want to be confined to the lectures.  Both the professors and students get through for the sake of getting through.  The difference we need to make is practical applicability of what we learn, the attitude of learning, the objectives itself of higher education, and not just simply focusing on the subject.” 
Dr. De Silva also emphasizes that the curriculum too needs to be expanded a bit.  “There is a very narrow focus as opposed to the US system.  In the US, you can still be an engineer, but have to learn Economics, History, Communication, Language etc.”
Some local universities have strict rules and regulations regarding attendance which discourages students from entering the job market prior to the completion of their degree. This becomes a serious problem for a graduate from a local university competing in the job market as he or she will be compared with graduates from other universities or institutions outside of the local system who are not only younger than them but also have prior work experience.
State sector jobs
Though it is a common perception that many of our graduates opt for government-sector jobs (due to its relatively easy nature, good pay and benefits such as the pension fund etc), most graduates who pass-out each year join the ‘unemployed’ pool.
Convener of the Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates (CAUG), Dhammika Munasinghe says that there are no suitable jobs for most of the Sri Lankan graduates. “There is no ‘value’ for our degree. The government has to introduce educational reforms and establish a proper mechanism to absorb graduates to the economic system.  This is not a problem of the person who studies but a policy failure.”
According to CAUG, the number of unemployed graduates at the beginning of this year had surpassed 42,000. The majority are Arts and Management faculty graduates.  They are being overlooked when filling state sector vacancies, and unqualified persons appointed on political influence.
Private sector approach
When one looks at the recruitment strategy of certain private sector companies, there seems to be a well-structured and rational approach.
Unilever Sri Lanka, a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company with local manufacturing facilities, reporting to the regional business groups says, over the last 70 years, they had recruited some of Sri Lanka’s best talent from local universities.
According to a Unilever Sri Lanka top official, their recruitment drive covers the top local and foreign universities in Sri Lanka including Colombo, Moratuwa, Jayawardenpura, Kelaniya, ACBT and APIIT.  Streams that are most attracted to Unilever are Arts, Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Production) and Management. “Many of our locally recruited talent have gone on to pursue successful careers with Unilever around the world.”
“Unilever believes learning is a continuous process. Therefore, we provide our recruits opportunities to learn on the job, through their relationships and networks, as well as through online and classroom training.  We constantly engage with the universities, through initiatives like the Unilever Students Network and partnerships with AEISEC Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lanka Federation for University Women. These initiatives are aimed at grooming potential talent and enhancing soft skills such as personal presentation and grooming, communication skills, leadership and interpersonal skills, required for students to succeed in the corporate world.”
Technical skills
Our country also needs technically-qualified people. Not only universities, we should have technical colleges, national training institutes, polytechnics etc.
“Now technology has improved immensely. Technical skills that we could get from the already existing handful of technical colleges in the country are limited.  We need large private sector investments in education, because the government is not investing enough in higher education,” Dr. De Silva says.
Programmes that support entrepreneurship would also be a constructive way to not only get youth to engage in a business of their own but create more job opportunities in the economy. This will help lessen the burden of job-provision on the government to a great extent and also boost economic activity. Yet, a majority of youth do not seem inclined to go down the entrepreneurship path and are risk-averse.
Psychological impact
Job seekers often feel the stress of trying to keep their families happy while they deal with the reality of unemployment and looking for a job. In the case of under-employment, A.V. Rekha, Senior Psychologist of “Sahanaya Institute”, a non-governmental organization established under the National Council for Mental Health says, social value of a job is very important for our youth.
“Youth consider white-collar jobs as prestige and also secure.  Besides, they are also in pursuit of quick financial gains. In case they fail to achieve them, they would become frustrated and also emotionally breakdown. This would lead to depression and even psychological disorders in the long run, not everyone can survive setbacks. It all depends on the individual’s personality. Today we see youth in our society, suffering from various mental defects.”
Addressing the issue
One should look at how Sri Lanka is to address these issues in the job market, and also the various steps taken so far.
First of all, the government should have a clear target when creating jobs in each sector and then produce graduates accordingly.  India for instance had its long-term plans to develop the Information Technology sector, and has been producing graduates calculating the sector’s requirement.
Sri Lanka has just started to calculate the employability of graduates. The Higher Education Ministry says they now calculate the employability of individual faculties as well as the overall employability of each university on graduation day.
“We have done it with the Jayewardenepura University. In case the employability is not satisfactory (Faculty wise), the administers, professors of respective universities are asked to find out why graduates are not employable and the kind of graduates in demand. Thereafter, they are supposed to evaluate the input, the process, market requirement and redesign the system,” Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne says.
Among other major initiatives, the Higher Education Ministry has introduced the Professional Graduates Programme that could be followed parallel with the main degree.  This initiative with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountant (CIMA, UK) launched in February this year is aimed at building the capacity of undergraduates with a world recognized professional qualification.  Other professional programs of CA, IPM, CIM, SLIM, CPA, ACCA, AAT are to follow suit. “With the assistance of ‘Higher Education for Twenty-First Century (HETC)’ - a World Bank funded project, we are initially implementing this programme in Colombo, Jayewardenepura, Kelaniya, Ruhuna and Jaffna universities. To support this, the “Human Capital Development Finance Act” is to be passed in parliament next month,” Dr. Nawaratne says.
The Ministry claims that they are in the process of inculcating 4 key areas (Knowledge, Skills, Attitude, and Mindset) in to the system, as the present system imparts only theoretical knowledge.
Meanwhile, the Higher Education Ministry accuses universities for not accepting the responsibility towards their own graduates while the Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) on the other hand alleges the government for failing to work with university academics to develop a higher education policy.
Education analysts are of the view that prospects for educational reforms in Sri Lanka are bleak due to continuous opposition from most of the students, political parties and those who dislike reforms in education. They cite the Higher Education bill that was to come last year as an example.
Options
Due to the various changes in the social and economic structure specially the changes in technology from time-to-time, some subject fields lose their demand and new subject fields come in to play.  It is very important to take this into consideration when deciding a career path and selecting subject streams for higher education. Else, the result will be a ‘useless’ degree without a career or a way to earn a living. 
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a field with the most demand in the modern world. There are many employment opportunities in the field of ICT. University entrance is not essential for obtaining a professional qualification such as a ICT degree from a local or foreign university. “We must not forget that our national universities recruit only a very small number of students each year, and most of them who pass out remain jobless after four years of study. Students who have passed GCE Advanced Level examination can follow an ICT external degree course from the Colombo or Moratuwa University,” a lecturer attached to the Colombo University said.
We need competition and reforms in higher education.  That’s the only way the country can succeed. Our future growth is dependent on a solid, highly educated, technically-equipped population that can be employed by firms globally.