1. Inclusive Growth for Sustainable Development: A Perception with Special Reference to Skills
Development in Sri Lankan Context
Introduction
Growth is the most admiring term in the development arena while many of us fail to understand its
in-depth meaning. Many people expect to see the physical improvements around us as a growth
which is much tangible and visible. However, growth is more than mere physical development and
it is a long-lasting achievement in multiple aspects such as socio-economic development, cultural
integration and political freedom of people etc. Though the infrastructure development is a
prerequisite for the growth of a nation, the actual growth is something beyond it and varies from the
quality of life to their level of satisfaction by having better access to quality education, health,
employment and entertainments. Good governance, political rights and legal protection are few
indicators of true development in a country in the sense of inclusive growth. In inclusive growth, it
is expected to maintain equity among all group of people while eliminating inequalities and
exclusions among them (Spence Report1
, 2008). Perhaps, inclusive growth is a holistic approach for
the betterment of people and their nation. Infrastructure development may be a vehicle to bring
improvements together or collecting all resources for a common purpose but, it is alone not be a
growth. When inclusive growth is in place, all segments of citizens enjoy better living standards,
happiness, peace and harmony in and around them. Thus, the inclusive growth is more than mere
economic development.
Inclusive growth drives the development of a country. If so, who are the winners in the
development process? Is it people or their government? Both of them will not certainly benefit if
environment is not protected properly. The Brundtland Report2
(1987) defines the sustainable
development as “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generation to meet their own needs”. Nevertheless, natural resources are being consumed
drastically without adequate concern of its availability for future generation. Productions are in
increasing trend not only for meeting the actual demand but also for creating an artificial need for
consumption. These are boosting the overuse of limited resources for mere economic benefits.
Factories and power plants are polluting the earth by exhausting harmful emissions and chemical
wastages under the so called slogan of “industrial revolution for economic growth”. Whether the
next generation will be healthy to enjoy these developments or will they are able to obtain a good
planet for meeting their basic needs and the probable survival as human beings in the ecosystem are
some of the key but unanswered questions.
1
Report on Growth and Development
2
Report on World Commission in Environment and Development

2. The only answer for these questions is sustainable development, which is, growth for long lasting
improvements. “Having growth without harming the environment” is the core of the sustainable
development agenda for the survival of people in the ecosystem. Thus, development initiatives have
to be streamlined with sustainable development policies by the help of technical advancement and
innovations that will reduce the overconsumption of natural resources and none reusable energies
while protecting the environment.
Technical training empowers people to be the development partners in a country by enabling them
to exploit their potential by applying knowledge and competencies in workplaces as means for
improving their living standards. On the other hand, technology provides solutions for managing
industrial wastes in a productive way through recycling. Technologies do assist to produce
renewable energies at lower environmental cost. Today the technology and its acquisitions are very
important. Thus, skills upgrading are very crucial for people not only for the purpose of income
generation but also for securing natural resources and safeguarding environment. As skills
upgrading becomes the foremost tool for sustainable development through inclusive growth, this
article tries to examine the importance of skills development and its supply for labour market
demand along with future initiatives in the context of developing Sri Lanka.
Skills Development in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, the formal Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) represent a long
history since the era of colonization in parallel to the general education. The importance of its
ability as a path for gainful employment was not the first priority of the people in early days.
Although the first Technical College formerly named as “Technical School” had been established in
1893 in Colombo, the potential of the technical education has only been realised with the trend of
replacing the traditional enterprises by export-oriented industries after the independence of the
country in 1948. It was further reinforced by the government policy of promoting domestic products
as import substitutes to achieve the aim of saving foreign exchange for self-sufficiency from the
year of 1972. Later this trend has been changed since the introduction of open economy in 1977.
However, the open economy introduced in 1977 was compelled to unlock the path for producing
skilled people to cater the demand of both domestic and foreign labour markets. As such, the free
market has started attracting not only local investors but also foreign multi-national companies to
do investments in order to compete with similar products and services in local markets. As a result,
demand for skilled manpower has significantly increased and created the room for expanding skill
training in Sri Lanka. Similarly, employment opportunity in Middle Eastern countries along with
migrant workers is the other catalyst to push the need of producing skilled personnel.

3. In attempt to cater such increasing demand for skilled workforce, there has been a paradigm shift
evolved in training delivery which focused from the typical process of supply driven to demand
driven approach. Accordingly, skills are standardised in line with the industrial needs and norms to
deliver trainings in the mode of Competency Based Training. Subsequently, the country received a
unified qualification system namely; National Vocational Qualification framework in 2004, in
which, the TVET graduates are being certified in different levels such as certificate courses,
diploma and degrees. However, this shift is not alone enough to bring the required quantity of
employable people due to lack of access, quality and relevance of training in the TVET sector of Sri
Lanka.
In 2012, the number of school candidates qualified to follow G.C.E. (A/L) is 219,910 out of
352,475 pupils who sat for the G.C.E. (O/L) examination while 144,745 students were qualified for
university entrance out of 233,634 candidates of the G.C.E (A/L) examination held in same year.
But, only 23,125 students were successful to obtain admission at the state universities in 2012,
(DOCS, 2013). Consequently, it was reported that nearly 300,000 students leave the general
education system annually and seek alternative avenues for their career aspiration in the country.
However, in a year, there are nearly 100,000 trainees enrolled into formal vocational training
programmes of state institutions under the MYASD (MYASD, 2014). This clearly indicates the
lack of accessibility for skills training in the country.
In contrast, the social stigma of youth also prevents them to enroll into TVET programmes. Most
youth have aspiration of doing white-collar jobs in government sector and not willing to be a
technical craftsman in workplaces. As such, certain numbers of training centers are running under
capacity except in few occasions in demanded courses. This shows that the available opportunities
are not properly utilized by youth in the country due to their negative attitude.
However, less public recognition and lower financial inputs in TVET sector hinder its expansion in
terms of admitting a large number of trainees and recruiting qualified teachers. Further, student
dropout is another crisis of this sector where annually 10-15 percentages of trainees are leaving at
the mid way of their training programmes (MYASD, 2014) and it is also reported that more than a
half of trained persons are not employed immediately after their training due to skill mismatches.
Thus, training providers, especially public institutes are facing numerous challenges to increase
their institutional capacity and teaching quality for producing employable skilled workers to match
the demand in labour market. Therefore, quality and relevance of training programmes are also
somewhat questionable and have to be addressed in the TVET sector.

4. Skills Demand and Supply in Labour Market
The government policy framework called “Mahinda Chintana” vision for the future directs the
country to become a “Wonder of Asia” by giving high priority with a five-hub vision. Knowledge
hub is one of them towards a knowledge based economy where global knowledge, skills and
competencies are implanted for its sustainable integration in the world economy. The average
economic growth rate of the country has been recorded as 7.3 % in 2013 with significant structural
changes from agriculture to service sector. The economy of the country mainly depends on tourism,
tea export, textile and clothing whilst it is steadily moving to food processing, telecommunication
and finance. Accordingly, the service sector is contributing to 58.1 % of the GDP while industrial
and agriculture sectors are accounting to 31.1 % and 10.8 % in 2013, respectively (CBC, 2013).
At present, hotel and tourism, construction and ICT industries are booming and the nation is
marching towards the group of middle income countries with the identification of a viable place for
investment. Therefore, the need for human capital in those areas is increasing along with industrial
expansion and foreign investments. Thus, the demand for skilled people is also rising in emerging
sectors and the prospect for skilled labourers is flourishing in Sri Lanka due to its fast economic
growth and stable opportunities for investments after the end of armed conflict in 2009.
According to the available data, the demand for skilled workforce in formal sector was 136,994 in
2012. These are the local demands only in 17 industrial sectors captured by TVEC. Also the
country had met the demand of 67,078 overseas employments in skill categories out of 282,331
foreign employment opportunities in 2012 (TVEC, 2013). Obviously, there is a shortage existing in
the supply of skilled manpower even for foreign employment where wages are relatively higher
than local employment. Although it is reported that the annual need for skilled training is around
300,000, the existing overall training capacity of the country is around 150,000, in which, the
private sector capacity is close to 50,000 (Public sector enrolment is 102, 609 and Private sector
enrolment is 45,522 in TVEC registered institutions in 2012).
In fact, the supply of skilled workers and training capacity are not at the level of appreciation in
both sectors. Therefore, more attention needs to be given to increase the training capacity of both
public and private sectors. A workable mechanism is needed to incorporate the private sector
contribution to strengthen the linkages between training providers and industries for conducting
more and more demand driven programmes with the purpose of meeting the skills requirements.

5. Academic freedom has to be given to training providers to decide and design programmes to meet
the requirement of service receivers. Training institutions have to be opened for both trainees and
industrial people to acquire and share latest skills and technologies. The training managers have to
seek new strategies to increase their institutional capacity with maximum use of their limited
resources. Outsourcing could be one possible option for managers to increase the training capacity
while establishing and operating business arm in training centres is the other alternative measure for
public sector to gain productivity. Purchasing training from industries is also other choice for
training providers to increase their capacity. Thus, the implementation of these measures may reap
good results in TVET sector of the country in near future.
Future Initiatives in the TVET Sector
By considering the fact that the current skill training provision is not adequate to meet the labour
demand of the country, MYASD takes several initiatives in collaboration with private sector and
development partners to address this growing issue. Among those initiatives, implementation of
TVET reforms is the prime measure where training delivery has been modified into be more
demand driven than supply driven. Introducing technical training programmes in general education
is one strategy to prepare a large number of human capitals to work in industries under the principle
of learning to live. Moreover, recognizing the ICT programmes in school system is the initial step
to link the technical education with general education. Here, the main focus is to teach basic
technical knowledge and skills at school level to persuade the students to follow a technical
programme for their career development after leaving school. This concept has now transformed as
Technology Stream at schools in the country.
At present, a joint skills development programme has been organised for electrician trade to fill the
vacancies in the Power industry of the country in collaboration with Ceylon Electricity Board.
Further, an action has been taken to conduct skills programmes to the target group of migrant
workers with the support of Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau in order to meet the overseas
demand for skilled workers. Moreover, the establishment of Vocational Training Institution -
North with the support of GIZ and KfW, Germany adds more opportunity for the people in the
Northern Province to upgrade their skills in the fields of modern technologies after the dark era of
armed conflict. This initiative will definitely empower the youth in the Northern Province to
employ them in industries as potential skilled workforce and reintegrate their lives with increased
social mobilisation. It is expected that this initiative will also significantly support to reduce the
regional disparities and social inequalities among people in the country.

6. Yet, University College which is a new avenue for TVET is introduced and being established
across the county to conduct diploma level programmes in order to cater the urgent needs for
manpower at the positions of middle level technicians and managers in industries. Hence, the
technology stream and university colleges are two major initiatives in the educational history of Sri
Lanka as reforms of the TVET sector. In addition, the Skills Sector Development Programme has
been formulated with the support of Asian Development Bank and World Bank to provide an
efficient skills education system in the country with the aim of having a constructive platform for
better alignment and coordination with all the stakeholders in TVET sector for skilled development.
Conclusion
In conclusion, growth is more than mere development. It is a long lasting improvement in all
aspects in the sense of inclusive growth for the betterment of people and their nation as a whole.
Skills development and its acquisition will lead the people to exploit their potentials at workplaces
in order to enhance better living standards and good human lives. In the process of sustainable
development, environment and scarce resources will be protected forever for the benefit of future
generation. Indeed, technological advancement and its innovation will empower the people and the
system to work in industries without harming the environment.
In Sri Lanka, a large number of students are entering into the labour market without necessary skills
due to lack of access, quality and relevance of skills training opportunities. Though there are many
initiatives for achieving those aspects, technology stream and university colleges are two major
recent initiatives taken by the government of Sri Lanka to address the issue of skills shortages in
labour markets. Consequently, these initiatives will provide equal opportunities for rural youth and
socially marginalised people to be the development partners by entering the world of work for
improving their living standards and safeguarding the environment. Hence, skills upgrading poses
inclusive growth along with sustainable development in Sri Lanka.
P. Sivananthan, B.Sc. (Jaff.), PGDE (Merit), MPM (UQ, Aus.), MDS (Col.), MAIPM
Assistant Programme Manager of Skills Sector Development Programme
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development, Colombo, Sri Lanka
References
Brundtland, G.H. (1987), World Commission on Environment and Development, UN document:
http://www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf. viewed on 02.06.2014.
Central Bank of Ceylon (2013), Annual Report, Colombo.
Department of Censes and Statics (2013), Statistical Pocket Book, Colombo.
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development (2013), Statistical Report:
http://www.youthskillsmin.gov.lk, viewed on 02.06.2014.
Spence, M. (2008), Commission on Growth and Development; Strategies for Sustained Growth and
Inclusive Development, Washington, DC.
Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (2013), Labour Market Information Bulletin, Vol. 02/’11,
December, Colombo.