OPA laments graduates of passing out without required skills demanded by job market

The Organization of Professional Associations says that every year around 60,000 graduates without employable skills join the growing number of unemployed persons.Addressing a press conference at the OPA headquarters in Colombo last week, OPA President Dulitha Perera said the country’s unemployment rate increased to 5.70 percent in March 2021, from the previously reported 5.20 percent in Dec 2020.

Sri Lanka Unemployment Rate is updated quarterly, available from Jun 2012 to Mar 2021, with an average rate of 4.50 %. Currently around 100,000 join the unemployed number annually. They are composed of around 300,000 youth passing out of schools after A/L examination and 30,000 graduates passing out from state universities. In addition there are about 5,000 graduates passing out from private and international universities, technically qualified diplomats and other qualifications, tertiary and vocational training institutions join the unemployed lot annually.Perera predicted that these numbers may increase during next two to three years due to the advancement of technology.

Past OPA President, Dr. Lalith Wijetunge said the latest statistics from the Department of Census and Statistics reveal that the country’s unemployed population rose by 100,000 during the first quarter of 2020, coinciding with the start of the lockdowns. It also indicates more job losses in the coming months, while those who are unemployed will be desperate to find new jobs to survive in this time of uncertainty.

Dr. Wijetunge said that majority of graduates do not have adequate skills as the industry expected. “There is no generally accepted definition of graduate employability. Researchers have critically reviewed the graduates’ unemployment in Sri Lanka. There are skills mismatch, education mismatch. The lack of coordination and cooperation among the various stakeholders of universities become a root cause for unemployment of graduates,” he said.

Dr. Wijetunge said that unemployment rate among the Sri Lankan graduates passing out from the state Universities is high, compared to other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The average overall employability ratio of Universities in Sri Lanka is 54 percent. The Faculties of Arts and Management have higher rates of unemployment in the country and accounted for 76% and 36% of unemployed graduates respectively, whereas Medicine and Engineering accounted for 10% and 7% respectively in 2012.

“These statistics clearly indicates the waste of time and energy of the educated youths as well as the skilled youths. The rulers should take immediate action to solve the crisis. Now the private sector organizations have expressed their willingness to help solve this issue by providing jobs on a part time basis for a considerable portion of the unemployed youth. That solution has no burden on Government, employer or the employee. Many other countries have used this solution. It would suit Lanka only if the Government can administer the solution in a proper way,” he said.