Mismatch between career aspirations, job opportunities
The mismatch between career aspirations and job opportunities and the gap between formal education and market demands could be a major cause for youth unemployment and, this become the focal point of an ‘Open Forum’ organised by the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) held last week in Colombo.
The discussion centred on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) that could address some of these gaps which could play a vital role in skills development to improve employment opportunities to the youth.
Productivity and employment sector diversification are essential criteria to increase economic growth and there is interest by the government and other development partners to skilling and employment in promoting vocational training through TVET.
Ryotaro Hayashi, Social Sector Economist, Asian Development Bank (ADB) speaking on ‘How much do we know about TVET? Project Experiences in South Asia’ said that the key policy questions are on gender, industry, location, survey timing training institutions, new entrants/up-skill, level of training, course duration and internship.
He pointed out that access is not easy in infrastructure, equipment, curriculum, online learning, instructor’s capacity, career guidance, industry linkage and job placement support and said that quantifying culture, student willingness, student aptitude, soft skills and leadership is difficult.
On the job placement rate of Asian Development Bank projects in South Asia, he said that rates are Bangladesh 62 per cent, Bhutan 76 per cent, Kerala, India 5 per cent, Nepal 63 per cent, and Sri Lanka 51 per cent. He said of the findings on average, 35 per cent of the estimates are positive and statically significant.
There are some queries, he said on loans achieving its purpose of encouraging trainees to start up a new business, and whether trainees think of self-employment as a means to supplement their income while working and not as permanent and steady self-employment.
He said there are queries as to creating entrepreneurship among trainees before granting them loans, and promote the idea of two or three or more trainees getting together to form a business which is profitable and sustainable for a longer period.
He said that some of the key findings were that 64 per cent have started new businesses after the training and 43 per cent have improved their business while three per cent never started a business. A small percentage of trainees have applied for loans on behalf of family members. He said that 58 per cent out of those who changed their industry are considering returning to the industry.
The main reasons, he said are-; because they obtained training and there is an opportunity to make extra money, satisfaction with the current vocation and lack of time.
Meanwhile the ADB was instrumental in arranging a research on a ‘Tracer Study – Sri Lanka: Public Training Institutions 2016 and the report of the survey was out in December 2018.
The report indicates that the government is prioritizing human capital investment to enhance economic diversification and productivity to transform into a knowledge-based economy by 2025.
It indicates that the country is ramping up policy measures to make further investment in skills development and catch up with rapid technological changes and the government has launched a Skills Sector Development Programme in 2014, which would lay a strong foundation to achieve its vision of knowledge-based, highly competitive, and social-market economy.
The report’ indicated that ADB supports this Skills Sector Development Programme primarily in technical and vocational training and education (TVET) and in other South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal to address policy challenges.
The report goes on to indicate that TVET accounted for more than half of ADB’s lending portfolio in the education sector in 2015–2017, led by South Asia. Under ADB’s growing TVET portfolio, analytical work plays an instrumental role in guiding policies.
It went on to mention that ADB has been supporting policy development through analytical work such as employment diagnostic studies and economic corridor studies in South Asian countries. The analytical works underpin the policy directions, but the policies need periodic review based on evidence to make sure the policies work as intended. The evidence is particularly important for TVET. The main purpose of TVET is to improve employability, gauged by tracking down people who have graduated from TVET institutions.