SDAs to boost technical and vocational education
by Gamini Warushamana
The Government has initiated a new approach to boost technical and
vocational education in the country by recruiting 350 Skills Development
Assistants (SDAs). The new officers will be attached to Divisional
Secretariat (DS) Divisions and they will be given powers to monitor all
public and private technical and vocational training institutes in the DS
divisions.
Graduate trainees selected have been offered permanent appointments under
the Ministry of Skills Development Vocational and Technical Education.
The Ministry has taken steps to develop technical education in the
country with financial assistance from the ADB to implement the National
Vocational Qualification (NVQ) method in all public and private technical
education institutions. The ministry hopes to employ the new officers to
implement the new system effectively, Ministry sources said.
Promoting technical and vocational education is another task assigned to
the new SDAs. They will work closely with schools and persuade
school-leavers to join the technical education system where most government
institutions are under-enrolled today.
Developing technical and vocational education is vital to curb the
prevailing high unemployment rate.
Today the country's unemployment rate is 9% and according to labour force
statistics 13.9% of women and 6.5% men of the labour force are unemployed.
As classified according to educational level 11.9% graduates, 18.3% A/L
qualified and 13.8% O/L qualified people are unemployed. Around 28.9% of
those unemployed are 19-25 years. According to these figures the
unemployment rate is higher among young educated people.
Ministry officials said that there is a large number of vacancies for
technicians in different fields. In addition self-employment opportunities
as well as overseas employment opportunities are open for skilled labourers,
but there is a shortage of skilled people to fill the vacancies.
This mismatch is a result of the negative social attitude people have
towards technical and vocational education, they said. Therefore, the
government believes that a wide campaign and a link with the school
education system are required to increase the enrolments to technical and
vocational training institutions and the new SDAs will be engaged in the
campaign.
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