Vocational Education in Sri Lanka: the Experience of Canada’s World University Service
March 31, 2012, 4:16 pm
, Sunday Island.
An interview with Ingrid Knutson
By a Special Correspondent
We
understand that you have been engaged in the field of technical
assistance for a long time, working with UN agencies and others. Can
you briefly describe your career before you came to Sri Lanka?
I
have worked for the Canadian International Development Agency for
nearly 30years working with civil society, bilateral country programs
such as Haiti and Afghanistan and with the UN, World Bank and
Organization of American States. Overseas postings to Ethiopia (Red
Cross), then with CIDA to Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Washington
DC/OAS and Afghanistan, have all given me a strong affinity with field
realities and rural areas outside of capital cities. Having worked with
Canada’s Privy Council Office, I appreciate greatly the governance and
sustainability aspects of development work since it is a real
challenge "to do good well". When I came to Sri Lanka I almost returned
home to Canada after the first year of working intermittently but then
the WUSC Country Director position came up for international
competition and I applied successfully. Now I had work I could sink my
teeth into.
Can you tell us about the WUSC Canada. When was it set up, how is it financed, and where does it operate?
World
University Services of Canada (WUSC) is probably Canada’s oldest
development organization with roots going back to student campuses and
European refugee work after World War One. It was only after World War
Two that WUSC came to Ceylon in 1953 for an international student
seminar. Since then WUSC has been involved throughout the 1960s and
1970s with work on university campuses with students. I am thrilled to
see the traces of that work today when I meet with senior government
officials who remember WUS (not WUSC) work at Moratuwa, Sri
Jayawardenapura, Peradeniya and University of Colombo. A Sri Lankan
friend recently passed me a WUS publication on "non formal education"
held in 1976 on University of Colombo’s campus.
WUSC is an
education and training, not for profit organization. It is a membership
organization, not a fund raising organization, so funding is largely
dependent on international donors and of course there are good years and
not so good years. After the tsunami WUSC had 12 donors supporting our
work in Sri Lanka but that funding has largely finished today. Norway,
Canada and UN agencies such as UNICEF and WFP provide funding to us
today and the Ministry of Youth and Skills Development reimburses us
for "tools of the trade" expenses from a Canadian food aid counterpart
fund.
Every year over 400 Canadian students and university
and college faculty members come together in Ottawa, Canada to review
the work of WUSC in 22 countries around the world, in Africa, the
Americas and Asia. Sri Lanka has traditionally been one of the most
important countries for programming.
How long have you worked in Sri Lanka? Can you think of any highlights before your period?
WUSC
geared up its operations in Sri Lanka in 1989 with what has become its
flagship vocational training program called PRET (Project for
Rehabilitation through Education and Training). It has had an
unprecedented five phases of operation working with 30,000 people
mostly youth and women in rural areas far from Western Province. WUSC
has been active promoting vocational training in 19 districts of the
South, East, hill country and North. For the past 10 years, we have
been working in the plantations sector in four Central Province
Districts. We support vocational training and skills development for
youth to offer them opportunities for work off-estate, but also support
improving the work environment on estates through support to
occupational safety and health, along with other measures. In previous
years the vocational training program was much bigger and operated at a
time when the government was first establishing NVQ (national
vocational qualifications). A highlight for us was being able to take
this government designed NVQ system to isolated, rural areas. In the
early days of NVQ, WUSC worked with the government Ministry of
Vocational and Technical Education and its senior officials such as Dr.
Piyasiri as well as VTA and NAITA Chairmen. It is always exciting to
be part of something that is getting established and can make a big
difference.
What is the WUSC work program in Sri Lanka. What is the level of resources allocated to Sri Lanka over the last five years?
WUSC
was working on several projects with total funding post tsunami
(2005-2011) dedicated to Sri Lanka of over $ 10million. This year our
annual budget for our vocational training work is much more modest,
closer to $ 1 million which pays for Sri Lankan staff in six offices
(Colombo, Kandy, Jaffna, Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Badulla) and field
programming with over 20 local partners, much downsized from previous
years with over 50 local partners.
WUSC is involved in the
field of gender and plantation communities and youth leadership as well
as vocational training geared to poverty alleviation and job creation.
There is considerable attention in our work paid to life skills and
quality training. Our training cycle emphasizes that it takes more than
technical skill to get a job. Having confidence, learning to work as
part of a team, having some English understanding, being sensitive to
diversity including women’s roles, on the job training of a practical
nature, assistance with business planning including credit and tools of
the trade, all contribute to improving the chances of employment and
increased income earning capacity.
Are your programmes independently executed by you or are they implemented through other bodies? Can you give us some examples?
We
operate programmes ourselves and in cooperation with local partners.
It’s quite a symbiotic relationship. Our partners are critical to our
field operations and have a good reputation in the communities they
serve for getting work done cost effectively. Some of our partners are
historic and well known to everyone in Sri Lanka and abroad such as
Sarvodaya but there are others who are highly significant in their
local areas such as Kavantissa in Hambantota, Miani in Batticaloa,
ORHAN in Vavuniya. Throughout the years we have always included
district level government partners ranging from VTA to Gems and
Jewellery Research Institute and of course worked at the national level
with the Ministry of Youth and Skills Development, its predecessors,
and its key agencies.
Are your programmes especially directed towards women? What are the problems in getting women involved in vocational education?
Our
goal is to generate income and employment for youth and women in rural
districts. This can more easily be achieved by focusing on males who
face fewer obstacles to employment. We believe that females must also be
given opportunities to work in country to make Sri Lanka’s economy
develop sustainably. If women can leave their families and home to go
abroad in huge numbers to work as housemaids, surely cultural norms
will ensure they can be offered more varied skilled work opportunities
in Sri Lanka and outside their village. Females are better educated in
Sri Lanka than in most countries so overlooking their work
opportunities is a waste of talent and resources. There are severe
skills shortages in Sri Lanka experienced by the private sector, a
mismatch that some argue has contributed to civil conflict and youth
frustration in all rural areas and ethnic groups.
So we
work hard to reach our 30% female target. Our tracer studies follow up
with all our trainees and indicate that employment rates are much
higher for males than females after on the job training. We try and
confront those obstacles to female employment and not steer females into
traditional courses such as dressmaking and beautician work. Better
income can be earned in the area of information technology/computers,
tourism and hospitality industries and nontraditional female work, for
example, in the construction trades –electricians and woodworking and
furniture making. We have had some success in expanding opportunities
for females to work which is especially important for the many female
headed households in the country. Working on leadership activities,
confidence building and counseling that involves parents and schools,
can make a difference. Sometimes, small changes make a big difference.
It may be difficult due to lack of mobility for many women to work as
masons but we find they can use masonry training to do decorative work
as sub contractors in their homes. Female electricians may not wish to
work for company that has them on the road alone but they can be helped
to find positions in schools, hospitals and offices that require an
electrician on call.
What kinds of vocational education are you engaged in? Do you think there are overlaps with the work of other agencies?
A
glimpse at our database will show that in the last 3 years we have
been doing vocational training with 3500 trainees in 12 districts in the
South, East and North. Another 400 trainees have been part of our
plantation estates program in four hill districts. There are over 100
NVQ accredited vocational training courses in the country in Sinhala
and fewer in Tamil although we are working to help Tamil curriculum
catch up. The variety of courses is great but a significant number of
trainees are signing up for the construction trades(plumber, mason,
electrician, welder, carpentry, aluminum fabrication), for information
technology courses and in the tourism and hospitality service sector.
We continue to support a lot of mechanical and engine repair as well as
jewellery fabrication.
We don’t overlap with the work of
other agencies. There is no question that our local, not for profit
partners in rural areas offer a service that few others do. Of course,
there are many more private sector and government vocational training
centres in the country constituting nearly 90% of all registered
training being offered. Our special niche is that we operate in
farflung rural districts, often with more females and differently abled
trainees, places and people where there are fewer government and
private sector training opportunities on offer. Other important, not
for profit vocational training organizations such as Don Bosco, offer
very good vocational training courses and we work cooperatively to make
sure we do not do so in the same areas.
Most importantly
we try to support courses for which our research indicates there are
employment opportunities to ensure that trainees obtain employment or
self employment. Our tracer studies over the past 15 years undertaken
with every trainee six months after completing their on the job
training help us with this determination including measuring income
increases earned.
What kinds of vocational training
according to your view are more appropriate to this country at this
stage, and specially to women?
I think the government’s main
priority sectors for vocational training– construction trades,
information technology/computers and tourism/hospitality makes a lot of
sense given labour market survey information available to us. These
are areas that private sector representatives, such as the Ceylon
Chamber of Commerce, also identify as important. Of course there are
other important fields such as health care, agricultural processing and
light manufacturing including garments which offer a great deal of work
for women. Many of these fields have considerable overseas demand for
skills. With growing numbers of working Sri Lankans (approximately 1 in
5) going abroad to work, there is a need to be vigilant on domestic
skill shortages. Every year40,000 people leave Sri Lanka in the
construction sector and yet a 100,000construction workers are needed at
home. There is a tendency to identify certain skills for women and
others for men but in a modern, growing economy there needs to be
greater flexibility. It makes me think of my mother telling me that when
she grew up in Canada she could reasonably aspire to be a secretary or
teacher but not much else. Now her daughters and granddaughters laugh
at such quaint ideas and have more range of opportunity than we can
hope to grasp with professions that did not even exist earlier.
What kind of collaboration is there with government bodies, such as the Ministry responsible for vocational education?
The
Ministry of Youth and Skills Development is our key government partner
and the regulator of vocational training registration and
accreditation standards. It is led by a dynamic Minister, Dullas
Alahapperuma. We are pleased that the Ministry brought together various
complementary agencies – TVEC, VTA, NAITA – that really needed to be
working collaboratively. All three of them are crucial to our success
in rural districts. The districts in which we work have established
vocational training provider consortiums that bring government, private
and not for profit groups together under the leadership usually of the
Government Agent. This is hugely important and hopefully
decentralization will be possible to ensure government NVQ standards and
services are more easily applied at the district level far from
Colombo.
Knowing the vocational education system in Sri
Lanka, what do you think are the shortcomings and what do you think are
the areas to be improved?
In August 2011 Sri Lanka hosted a
regional conference which brought together technical and vocational
education training practitioners. It became quickly apparent that Sri
Lanka compared to its other South Asian and East Asian neighbours had a
well developed NVQ system. This is a huge advantage to build upon. At
the same time there were two key shortcomings identified for Sri Lanka
and other countries.
Much, much more work is needed to bring
the private sector into the room. Vocational and technical training
that does not lead to employment and meeting the needs of the private
sector seeking skilled labour, is an exercise in frustration for all
concerned and a huge waste. Every country in the world is struggling to
do a better job of marrying private sector job needs with quality
training but some do it better than others. The German speaking
countries are often held up as a model of long duration where there is
close collaboration between the private sector and training providers
and government.
Secondly, there was unanimous agreement that
the "branding" or "social marketing" of vocational training was
pitiful. There is a strong preference for the professions that are
known and well established such as engineering and medicine and work
that is considered socially prestigious such as working for government.
Yet a national economy needs so much more than that to function
properly. Career guidance is often identified as failing to adequately
assist young people, their families and schools to know enough about
options available.
What do you think of the quality of vocational education in this country? Which areas need particular attention?
The
NVQ system provides a strong basis for quality vocational training but
the devil is in its implementation. First, there has to be a hunger
and appreciation for quality learning and training rather than
certificate collection. That means learning problem solving and
practical skills that make one employable. Secondly, a test of
employability is critical. Tracer studies of all trainees done six
months after classroom, and then on the job training, is revealing. We
learn what we are doing well and not so well. It helps us work with our
partners and tell them where they are failing and how they might
correct that.
Do you think that vocational education can be an alternative option to getting into universities?
Vocational
training and university education, do we need both? When 90% of school
leavers cannot find a place in universities and most university
graduates are unemployed because they lack basic skills from a second
language to computers skills to people skills and a flexible work
attitude, the answer is YES! In Canada where most school leavers go on
to post-secondary education, do we need vocational training more than
university education? The answer is yes. For every one university
graduate getting a job in Canada there are six community
college/vocational training graduates getting a job. A growing number
of Canadians when they complete their university studies go for
technical training for a job. The range of options is vast from
animation work with high demand in Hollywood to culinary arts including
a tea sommelier course offered by the Tea Association of Canada with
Toronto’s George Brown College and Vancouver’s Community College.
There
are many development projects, small and large, which are being
implemented in this country. These projects can be designed in such a
way as to improve vocational education. For example, a hotel project
can also have some components for the training of people in related
working in the vicinity. Have you any ideas about this?
What
Sri Lanka most needs now to further advance quality vocational
training is a determination to get "all hands on deck". Government,
Private Sector and "not for profit" organizations are all needed, small
and large. The government sets the regulation and accreditation process
and provides considerable training, the private sector provides the
most important productive employment and training and the "not for
profits" fill in some of the gaps to assist people who will not be able
to access government or private sector training offerings. Having said
that, we have not really experimented sufficiently and found common
cause together. Indeed, what better place to marry tourism/hospitality
skilled needs with training than in the place of work. It can happen
and it is happening but more is needed. WUSC worked in the South with
Kavantissa, a rural not for profit training organization and Jet wings
to run a cooking course with five star kitchen equipment and jobs for
those who graduate. WUSC worked in the North with Thampu hotel and not
for profit training organizations, WDC and YGRO, to train staff.
HNB’s
Yauwanabhimana youth program brings together various corporate
partners from various industries including tourism (Aitken Spence),
agro processing (Hayleys, CIC), construction (Holcim),automotive (DIMO),
information technology (Dialog), together with British Council,
University of Colombo and WUSC. Innovations are possible between
various partners and there is now a road show going to the districts to
talk to young people about thinking differently about career choices
and the private sector and training and education.
This builds on earlier work between WUSC and the Hambantota Chamber of Commerce to support career guidance for young people.
Career
orientation can highlight the employment potential and income
potential of trades and running a small business that show the
vocational education route is not necessarily the poor route.
Can WUSC facilitate policy improvements in vocational education, if the government so wishes? In which way can it be done?
Yes,
by working with GOSL and ensuring success and key lessons are shared
with GOSL. WE have done this as for example with the Gender Policy
Handbook published in Tamil and Sinhala by TVEC with ILO and WUSC
support which was a highly collaborative exercise.
