A Success Story from USAID Frontlines
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, 2009-02-01
USAID has built and equipped nine new vocational education schools that together will graduate over 2,000 students per year. All the schools are located in areas hard hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in the south and east of this island nation.
Each of the nine vocational centers will provide classes in trades currently in high demand by the Sri Lankan private sector, such as apparel making, welding, electronic repair, masonry, carpentry, and information and communications technology (ICT). The schools will also teach English.
The private sector has identified ICT as an especially critical area of training to ensure economic growth, and ICT training has proved especially popular with students. In one school in eastern Sri Lanka, more than 500 students turned up to register for 143 slots. ICT skills have become a requirement in Sri Lanka, as companies need employees who can use technology to help businesses compete.
"Training young people in vocational trades will help to provide good paying jobs in the near future, and will help boost both family income and the economic health of Sri Lanka as a whole,” U.S. Ambassador Robert O. Blake said at the opening of the first two schools in August 2008. “But to generate job opportunities, we need to attract private sector investment to create jobs for all those who receive training.”
Currently, only 16 percent of the country’s workforce has the higher education and technical qualifications needed to fill skilled positions.
USAID has worked for decades for development and stability in Sri Lanka where the private sector has proved to be the engine for economic growth and employment. Since the tsunami, the USAID mission has counted several successes in securing private sector funding.
In planning the vocational training centers, for example, USAID worked closely with the private sector to ensure the project incorporated the sustainability and flexibility to meet labor market needs. These businesses are likely to employ most of the graduates from the vocational training centers—their representatives helped to develop the curricula to ensure the students’ skills are in tune with the needs of the growing economy. Private donors also partnered with USAID to provide modern equipment for students training at the vocational centers.
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