News
More Lankans register for foreign jobs; more offers also come Lanka’s way
View(s):By Tharushi Weerasinghe
Registration for foreign jobs continues to record an increase as Sri Lankans endure the economic crisis.
The trend is welcome news for a Government desperate to see a rise in foreign exchange flows.
According to Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara, 172,505 people have registered with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) as of July 29, 2022, while the number of foreign job opportunities Sri Lanka is receiving has also increased.
Statistics the Sunday Times obtained from the SLBFE show that job offers for this year as of July are already on par with the total job offers the country received in 2019 and last year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Sri Lankans going abroad for work declined sharply in 2020. 
“The opportunities have risen since the Covid situation began to ease up, with businesses opening up and resuming operations, while travel restrictions are also being lifted,” said the bureau’s Deputy General Manager C.B. Ekanayake.
However, a study of the migrant-worker departure levels against the number of opportunities available every year shows that Sri Lanka has always had a surplus of available job openings abroad. The availability of skilled workers and undesirable terms and conditions were the biggest causes.
Before the economic crisis hit the country, the salaries most foreign job opportunities offered were more or less equal to what a Sri Lankan worker could earn in Sri Lanka. “So fewer people were interested in going since they would have to pay recruitment agency fees and be away from family,” Mr. Ekanayake said.
SLBFE conducting awareness programme for those seeking jobs overseas. Pic by Akila Jayawardana
He also noted that language barriers often disqualified otherwise suitable candidates. The SLBFE had now requested the vocational training institutes that handle migrant-worker training to include languages in their courses.
The SLBFE official said the number of vacancies shown in official figures was not necessarily the number of jobs in hand. “The same opening can get listed up to five times in the final vacancy list since the same job order could get placed with multiple agencies.” When a foreign company needs to recruit workers, it places an order with a licensed agency in Sri Lanka.
To attract more candidates for the job, some foreign companies place the same job order with several recruitment agencies. Agencies also advertise more opportunities than available to attract more CVs, the Sunday Times learns.
The sudden surge in foreign job opportunities was mostly for low-skilled, semi-skilled, and domestic workers. Caregivers with language skills are always high in demand but the SLBFE has also noted an increase in demand for Sri Lankan nurses in the European job market.
However, World Health Organisation standards on the nurse-to-patient ratio in Sri Lanka limit the number of qualified nurses who can leave for work abroad. “It was only recently that we met the ratio requirements; so we’re able to send a small number of nurses for these postings,” Mr. Ekanayake said. Electrical technicians were also in high demand.
w“The Middle East is our biggest market and Asia also has a high demand for health, care, and hospital industries,” he said, noting that the Foreign Employment Ministry was assisting agencies and training institutes to connect job opportunities with workers by equipping them with the specific skills required.
“Usually workers need to gain work experience after the vocational training to get employed but we’re negotiating this and even trainee opportunities for our workers.”
The official claimed that the Ministry and the Bureau had run extensive PR campaigns and were also discussing more incentives for migrant workers.
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