Sri Lanka is a country which has a very high unemployment rate. The overall unemployment is 45% whereas female unemployment rate is 65%.
“Sri Lanka needs to get more people to participate in labour market. We have to focus to women and people with disabilities who have right to engage in the labour force but have been marginalized. They must be given more opportunity for education and vocational training to engage in the labour market,” said Dr. Nisha Arunatilake who authored the Labour Market Characteristics, a thematic report based on Census of Population and Housing 2012. She expressed these views participating in the Generation to Generation Dialogue organized by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) held on 9th December 2016 in Colombo.
“Among Sri Lankans, 87 per 1000 have some kind of disability. Sri Lanka has recognized their right to participate in the labour force but their actual participation rates are very low,” she said.
Ashani Basnayake who leads the Environment and Climate Change research portfolio at Verité Research pointed out that highly educated women with tertiary level qualifications also do not enter the labour force. “Sometimes they do not have the necessary skills even though they are qualified,” she pointed out.
Today, economic development is driven by technology. Therefore, the science and technology employees are very important. We need more professional in this sector. IT education is very important.
Nalaka Umagiliya, Vice President of John Keells Holdings PLC described the situation in the IT industry. “In terms of technology, the skills needed also change fast. How adaptive the tertiary education systems are is also important. For example, five years ago, when we developed a website, we were not much worried about user interface and user experience aspects. But now the psychological elements are evaluated in web designing. Fresh graduates lack these skills.”
Nisha Arunatilake pointed out that only 13% of Sri Lankan population had tertiary level education. “The postgraduate qualified persons are less than 1% and you can’t even see them in a graph. This is the most innovative and professional section of the labour force. This is an area Sri Lanka is not doing well. We have to address it to increase the productivity of labour.
“The disparities related to female labour force participation is basically among the section of lower level of education. Females who have many family responsibilities are not attracted to the jobs which are not considered good because of longer working hours and less security.”
Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan who hails from Point Pedro is a Development Economist by profession and he is the Principal Researcher of the Point Pedro Institute of Development, Point Pedro, Northern Province, Sri Lanka, which was established in 2004. He sees cultural issues behind the trends in the labour force.
“Sometimes women do not enter labour force because the husband’s income is sufficient for family. Then it is a class issue. Second is a cultural issue and Sri Lankan women like the women in many other Asian countries prefer to give prominence to childcare. The lack of childcare facilities in society prevents women entering the labour force.”
Dr. Muttukrishna emphasized that personal laws like Muslim marriage law and Thesawalamai had severe restrictions on property ownership which prevented women from entrepreneur activities.
Sri Lanka government has focused to these issues and in addition to the moves to develop the child and elderly care facilities, the government recently proposed measures like part time work and flexible working hours. The panelists asked for more attention of the policymakers to address the issues in the labour force of Sri Lanka.
(This article was originally published in www.kiyanna.lk. That site is now changed to www.ivoice.lk owned by SDJF and supported by UNFPA)
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iVoice Idea Competition
iVoice is an online platform that encourages youth to discuss social issues and to drive innovative solutions. The platform features stories relating to social issues in Sri Lanka, which are submitted by iVoice contributors and the general public.
The objective of the iVoice Idea Competition is to encourage youth to play a participatory role in solving social issues. After reading a story featured on iVoice, youth can submit their ‘idea’ to help to address the social issue that is highlighted in the story. The ten best ideas will receive seed capital of Rs. 100,000/- each, and mentoring, to support in implementing their ideas.
The majority of articles featured on iVoice relate to a social issue. These stories have a ‘Submit Your Idea’ button at the end of the article, inviting youth to share their innovative ideas on how to address these social issues.
Submitted ideas must be innovative and unique. The ideas must also be practical and implementable by 31 December 2017.
The deadline for submitting an idea is 3 September 2017.
To submit an idea, the following details must be provided through the online form:
Note: Participants can submit any number of ideas; however, only one idea per article is permitted.
Ideas will be evaluated through a competitive process.
03 Sept 2017: Closing of submissions at 23:59 on 3 September 2017
06 Sept 2017: Shortlisting of 20 ideas
13 Sept 2017: Shortlisted applicants to present their ideas in further detail to the judging panel
21 Sept 2017: The ten winning ideas will be announced at the Award Ceremony at which Rs. 100,000/- seed capital will be granted to each of the winning applicants
Evaluation criteria includes creativity of the proposed idea to address the given social issue, and feasibility of implementation within the stipulated budget and timeframe.
The number of votes received per idea will not be a deciding factor.
The judging panel’s decision will be final.
iVoice Idea Competition
iVoice is an online platform that encourages youth to discuss social issues and to drive innovative solutions. The platform features stories relating to social issues in Sri Lanka, which are submitted by iVoice contributors and the general public.
The objective of the iVoice Idea Competition is to encourage youth to play a participatory role in solving social issues. After reading a story featured on iVoice, youth can submit their ‘idea’ to help to address the social issue that is highlighted in the story. The ten best ideas will receive seed capital of Rs. 100,000/- each, and mentoring, to support in implementing their ideas.
The majority of articles featured on iVoice relate to a social issue. These stories have a ‘Submit Your Idea’ button at the end of the article, inviting youth to share their innovative ideas on how to address these social issues.
Submitted ideas must be innovative and unique. The ideas must also be practical and implementable by 31 December 2017.
The deadline for submitting an idea is 3 September 2017.
To submit an idea, the following details must be provided through the online form:
Note: Participants can submit any number of ideas; however, only one idea per article is permitted.
Ideas will be evaluated through a competitive process.
03 Sept 2017: Closing of submissions at 23:59 on 3 September 2017
06 Sept 2017: Shortlisting of 20 ideas
13 Sept 2017: Shortlisted applicants to present their ideas in further detail to the judging panel
21 Sept 2017: The ten winning ideas will be announced at the Award Ceremony at which Rs. 100,000/- seed capital will be granted to each of the winning applicants
Evaluation criteria includes creativity of the proposed idea to address the given social issue, and feasibility of implementation within the stipulated budget and timeframe.
The number of votes received per idea will not be a deciding factor.
The judging panel’s decision will be final.
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