Gender and Development

Sri Lanka

Skills Development Project, 1999

Gender, Employment and Vocational Training:

Access to education and training is a major determinant of young people's future capacity to participate and flourish in society. Economic self-reliance is increasingly dependent on gaining vocational skills relevant to the industrial and service employment market. For this reason, there is strong social demand for vocational training in Sri Lanka, with demand outstripping supply.

The importance of vocational training institutes for young women and low-income families cannot be overestimated. Vocational training institutes are not only cheaper than other post-secondary education institutions but located in close proximity to many rural areas. They are often the only training opportunity offered to young women because of social attitudes which do not value women's education and discourage daughters from attending distant educational institutions. In Sri Lanka, for example, more than half of all enrolments in vocational institutes (52 percent) come from rural families living below the poverty line, with 45 percent of male trainees and 66 percent of female trainees coming from such backgrounds.

Unfortunately, there is a strong mismatch between the skills provided by Sri Lanka's vocational training institutions and the skills demanded by industry and the service sector. It is estimated that up to 70 percent of vocational courses equip trainees with low-level skills that have little relevance to employment markets. This is particularly pronounced in female-dominated training areas, and results in higher levels of unemployment among vocationally trained women. While women have achieved high participation rates in general education, their participation in vocational training is confined mainly to basic-level and traditionally female courses and programs. Over half of women in vocational training are found in clerical courses. Only about 20 percent of women are found in technology-oriented training, despite the unmet demand for skilled workers in such areas. Compared to other South Asian countries, women in Sri Lanka have a relatively good status, with an 89 percent literacy rate, an average life expectancy of 74 years, and a labor force participation rate of 27 percent. Women and girls in Sri Lanka benefit from a number of free services provided by the government, such as free and compulsory education. Nevertheless, women still lag behind men in terms of literacy, educational attainment and labor force participation (the corresponding figures for male literacy and labor force participation rates are 94 percent and 53 percent respectively). Furthermore, women interviewed during the PPTA noted considerable problems of discrimination in both the labor market and education system.

The disparity between the skills taught in vocation institutions and the skills required in the labor market has serious repercussions for Sri Lanka's unemployment problem. Youth unemployment is very high, particularly for young women, with young women's unemployment rate twice that of young men's. Employment is worst in rural areas, where estimates of rural unemployment of people between the ages of 15 and 29 are as high as 83 percent. This is related to the declining share of employment in agriculture, and points to the need to develop vocational training to suit the fast growing construction, insurance, real estate, transport, storage, communications, tourism and manufacturing sectors.

The ADB-funded Sri Lanka Skills Development Project has been designed to restructure vocational training in Sri Lanka on a number of fronts.¹ Firstly, it aims to reorient skills-development training to reflect the quality, standards and relevance demanded by industry and the service sector. Secondly, it will track women's enrolment in vocational training and encourage women to train in non-traditional female areas more aligned to the needs of the labor market.

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Project Design:

The project's main objective is to improve the quality and relevance of skills training in rural and urban areas in order to combat high youth unemployment. To this end, the project aims to restructure and reorient the vocational training system through:

• The introduction of competency-based training (CBT), thus ensuring a closer partnership between vocational training institutions and the private sector
• Upgrading of facilities and staff capacity building in selected existing vocational training institutions including six national vocational training institutions, 34 technical colleges, 200 vocational training centers
• The establishment of a national vocation training complex to include a CBT Learning Resource Development Center (LRDC)

The project comprises four components:

1. improving the quality and relevance of skills development programs
2. institution building and human development
3. resource mobilization and sustainability
4. innovative interventions to strengthen NGO and private sector participation

A large component of the project will involve staff development and training, particularly in the areas of CBT, curriculum development, evaluation and monitoring, career guidance and counseling, testing and evaluation, accreditation, skills standards setting, and management of skills training. The project provides for 5,335 person-months for staff development: 4,617 person-months for in-country training and 718 person-months for overseas training.

Principal beneficiaries of the project are rural and urban women, unemployed young people and school leavers. More than one third (46 percent) of trainees in the project are from poor families living below the poverty line. Almost all of the trainees are below the age of 25, and nearly half below 20. Such trainees will have the chance to participate in quality training programs not available prior to the project. For example, through on-the-job and internship programs, the project will provide training for new entrants into the workforce (many from disadvantage groups). Furthermore, opportunities for self-employment through entrepreneurship training and microcredit will be provided, especially in rural areas where employment opportunities are limited. In addition, employees in the private sector will benefit from in-service training to develops and upgrades skills. The incomes of trainees will also increase as a result, as they shift from low-paying unskilled work to better regulated and paid semi-skilled and skilled work.

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Gender Inclusive Design:

At present, many women are enrolled in the training institutes, but little is done to change their role in the economy or to capitalize on their high level of education. The project seeks to encourage women to enroll in skills development areas more closely aligned to the labor market, including technology oriented courses, and business and entrepreneurial training for women wishing to start their own enterprises.

Skills Development

A number of features have been included in the project design to address the oversupply of women in non-competitive vocational training including:

• Promotion of new skills development areas for women through skills training in nontraditional areas and job creation
• Consideration given to issues of discrimination that influence women's selection of skills training programs
• Review of current counseling and career advice and planning provided to women to promote women's participation in non-traditional areas
• Review of curriculum development, including profiling the training needs of industry sectors and the skills base of the rural poor, including rural women
• Providing opportunities for women to pursue on-the-job training and internships in nontraditional areas to encourage their participation

Self Employment Promotion Initiative

The project will support job creation through the Self-Employment Promotion Initiative. As part of this:

• Vocational courses in entrepreneurship and self-employment will be developed
• Women in particular will be encouraged to participate, with the project stipulating that women are to comprise 70 percent of beneficiaries

Human Resource Development

In terms of human resource development within vocational training institutions, the government has agreed to recruit more women to fill vacancies and additional positions.

Monitoring

An improved management information system developed within the project will generate gender disaggregated data to monitor and improve women's participation in skills development programs. Monitoring will cover:

• Gender tracking of women and men's enrolment in technical and vocational education
• Review of improved labor statistics and gender disaggregated employment data, linked to industry advisory boards, to make vocation training more relevant to student needs and expectations
• Women's job readiness and employment patterns