A new World Bank report, titled 'Enhancing Skills in Sri Lanka for Inclusion, Recovery, and Resilience,' reveals a concerning trend of increasing disparities between the recruitment of Sri Lankan workers and global job vacancies in foreign employment.
The report, launched this week, emphasizes the rising supply shortages, particularly in skilled job categories.
Shobana Sosale, co-author of the report, expressed the observed mismatch, stating, "Job vacancies for foreign employment have remained stable, but supply has been falling faster than demand." The report, drawing from government-registered sources, indicates that this mismatch spans all skill levels, with a notable increase for skilled workers. In 2022, only 10 percent of skilled job vacancies were filled, up from five percent in 2020 and 2021.
Among the report's key findings, it is revealed that a mere five percent of the 700,000 available foreign vacancies could be filled. The shortage is particularly evident in skilled workers, highlighting the challenge of workers entering the job market without adequate skills training. However, the supply of housemaids remains comparatively higher, with approximately 17 percent in 2020 and 11 percent in 2021.
Sri Lanka, relying on remittances from overseas workers as a significant source of foreign exchange, faces the imperative to invest in a skilled workforce. The national foreign employment policy aims to reduce dependence on remittances from low-skilled workers by promoting vocational and professional training.
"The Foreign Employment Bureau advises all workers to receive NVQ through the recognition of prior learning route or by attending training courses at a training institute," notes the World Bank report. This strategy aims to ensure that workers possess qualifications of internationally verifiable standards for employment in both domestic and high-income countries.
The report concludes with a call for Sri Lanka's workforce to gain the technical competencies and higher-order cognitive skills necessary to compete globally in both domestic and foreign labor markets.
