Govt, private sector should play a key role:

Increasing the employability of youth

By Lionel WIJESIRI

Kithsiri is in his final year in university and expects to get good results when he sits his exams in a few months. His expectations for his future prospects, however, are much lower. Speaking over the phone, he acknowledges that his chances of securing a job when he leaves university are slim.

“There will be so many Arts graduates leaving university at the same time,” he says, “and we will all be chasing after the few positions that might be available.” Looking for a job is a familiar plight to thousands of young educated people throughout the country.

However, according to the latest Central Bank statistics, the unemployment rate continued to decrease to 4.2 percent in 2011 from 4.9 percent in 2010.

This unemployment rate in Sri Lanka is relatively low when compared with other countries. On a list of countries ranked in order of their rate of unemployment in the World Fact Book published by the US Central Intelligence Agency, Sri Lanka ranks 42nd out of 200, and is far ahead of most Western countries.

However, on the flip side, the unemployment level among youth aged 25-29, is as high as 18 percent. This is something we have to sit up and take note of.

Reasons

Since the early 2000s, the Sri Lankan labour market has been changing – mostly for the better.

It is much more dynamic and flexible, yet protection measures for workers against exploitation and abuse are stronger. Overall, young people are better educated than at any time in our history.

So why is youth unemployment high? Of course, all unemployment has one thing in common: A lack of demand for workers. Let us take a few examples:

Automation replaces many routine jobs, not just in developed countries. It is happening here too;

Our universities are too slow to change. It takes them many years to change their courses. By then technology would have changed yet again;

The education system can be held accountable, failing to give youngsters the skills that are needed for jobs in advanced economies;

Life skills, or rather the lack of them pose a problem. Some youngsters don't know even the basics, from getting on with co-workers to having basic entrepreneurial skills;

It's a theme that comes up again and again: Businesses, universities and schools, government and non-governmental organisations fail to talk to each other about what they need and what they can deliver;

Ultimately, the problem comes down to demand for jobs.

Challenges

However, it's not just about Government, private employers too have responsibilities; not to reject young people who want to work just because they lack experience or job-specific skills, to provide access to good quality training and invest in their workforce. Young people too have a responsibility, to make good use of the support that is on offer.

It is obvious that high youth unemployment and growing skill shortages are the two important challenges currently facing the labour market. Why not use one problem as the basis of a solution to the other? In a labour market facing growing skill shortages, youth could become an even more valuable source of qualified workers.

Current difficulties in finding work are, and should, send a signal to young people to invest in their own skills. This would help them qualify for a job and contribute to filling the shortages in workers supply, especially among high-skilled occupations.

In the long run, tailoring youth training to match skills that are in short supply would help alleviate skill shortages. If there were greater communication and coordination between employers and schools and universities and more skills-specific training programs incorporating apprentice and internship opportunities, young Sri Lankans would be in a better position to gain the skills needed to find a job. In Germany, for example, the apprenticeship system combines on-the-job training with formal education, and therefore, allows students to gain concrete work experience while completing their education programs.

Considering youth as potential skilled workers should be a key element of a renewed strategy for tackling skill shortages. Not only is it easier to train and acquire skills at an early age, but the investment in human capital will generate a longer payback period - for the individuals and the economy.

With high youth unemployment, now is the right time to strengthen and implement appropriate training strategies. Policy-makers, educational institutions and potential employers should strike while the iron is hot.

Outdated curriculum

One of the critical reasons behind youth unemployment could be the current education system in the country being unsuitable for meeting the requirements of the job market, in terms of both curriculum content and requirements of the job market. Considering that this problem has persisted for over 40 years, it is appropriate to ask why our tertiary education system is outmoded and outdated.

While access to higher education is a worthy objective, more thought should have been put into what is to become of the thousands of students who cannot enter the universities. In this context, some educationists recommend that university entrance should perhaps be restricted according to the availability of the job market, so as to avoid frustration and dissatisfaction among students who spend three to four years earning their degrees only to find it an almost futile endeavour upon completion, when they are unable to secure employment.

All things considered, unemployment is a complex problem. From an unemployed graduate’s point of view, years of studying, in some cases under very difficult conditions is in vain and becomes useless when years after earning a degree, a suitable job remains out of reach.

On the other hand, from an employer’s perspective, a degree is not an automatic qualification for a job, especially when the skills and competencies required are lacking. The question of whose responsibility it is to ensure the employment and employability of graduates is debatable.

Responsibility

In the long run, the State and private sector have a responsibility to ensure that a feasible environment will be created which will help bring enough investment so that it will ultimately afford our youth an opportunity to improve their lot. Both should pursue such policies that equally help promote poor and middle-class people.

The history of the world bears witness to the reality that the nations which promoted its poor and middle-class people have gained in development and achieved a brighter future for their youth.

One of the holistic solutions lies in dedicating to the promotion of agriculture and industry. These can help improve the efficiency of the country in multiple ways. If our country makes some successful strides in reaping the advantages of agriculture and industry, there would be more employment for our youth.

In the meantime, the Government should help the youth to be self-employed by providing them with micro and macro-level loans. Loans should be provided with accessible conditions. Such conditions should be easier to comply with by the aspiring youth.

In the long-term, policies must be created that specifically target young workers. For example, continued investment in educational access for young people is something that has been encouraged by the policy community for years. Further, engaging larger numbers of young people in vocational training or higher education removes individuals from the labour market, bringing unemployment figures down. Any durable solution for the youth unemployment problem must at least address university graduation rates and access to higher learning or vocational training.