Sri Lanka to unveil a National Policy for Human Resource Development and Employment soon
Sri Lanka is to unveil a National Policy for Human Resource Development and Employment for the first time soon with the technical assistance of the International Labour Organisation. Senior Minister of Human Resource Development DEW Gunasekera told a gathering of economists government and private sector officials and foreign diplomats at Sri Lanka Economic Association Annual (SLEA) Sessions 2012 at the Centre for Banking Studies, Rajagiriya last week that the national policy document will be presented to the president by the end of this month.
The entire university education structure will be overhauled alongside the secondary education system to implement the proposed policy he added.
The education system plays a major role for the optimum utilisation of human resources which is vital for development.
Around 500,000 youths annually sit the GCE (O/L) examination but only 300,000 qualify for university entrance. The dropouts exceed 200,000. Only 25,000 could seek admission to state universities, he added. Referring to the Chinese example, he said, “when Deng Xiaoping came to power in China 10,000 youths were sent to Europe for higher studies on electronics and engineering. They are the leaders of today’s China taking the lead in the country’s crash development programme”.
A senior Ministry official told the Business Times that information on skill shortages has been systematically collected, analyzed and used in HR planning. Policy action to improve conditions of available human resource information is further discussed in this policy document. The recognition of the talents of young people and the provision of opportunities for them to develop those talents are vital in the HRD process The foundation for competencies needed for life and work will be provided from pre-school days onwards.
Processes and programmes are needed to encourage, enable and help the young to learn and adapt to opportunities for contributing to the productive world through their own efforts. Recent small scale efforts in this direction at schools and universities may be examined for expansion, he disclosed.
Greater emphasis will be placed in the school system on science, mathematics and information technology. More effective and more competent workers will help enterprises to remain competitive within global and regional markets, he added.
About 65 per cent of the workers are estimated to be in the informal sector where there are quality limitations in the available employment opportunities.
Yet as a large proportion of jobs are created by the self-employed and small scale employers, helping these enterprises to grow and be more efficient can help national economic growth and creation of new employment opportunities, he said.
The foundation for competencies needed for life and work will be provided from pre-school days onwards.
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