A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, June 17, 2017
Enhancing Employability Of Our Graduates
Since
a large number of students are graduating every year from our 15 state
universities and from many other degree awarding institutes operating in
Sri Lanka, employability of graduates has become a critical issue. In
the year 2015 alone the state university system produced nearly 35,000
graduates (internal degrees-17,000, external degrees-13,000 and Open
University degrees-5000 approximately), a large majority of them (67%)
are females. During the same year universities granted 7500 postgraduate
degrees. Added to this, a fair number of graduates are returning every
year to this country after obtaining foreign degrees. Thus, all these
graduates are facing a fierce competition to find a suitable employment
in a stagnant economy with limited employment opportunities in the state
as well as in the private sector. Because of this situation many
graduates tend to accept part-time insecure jobs or jobs for which they
are over qualified, if they are fortunate enough to find one. In this
situation, sound employability skills coupled with experience and
exposure to working environments will play a prominent role in finding a
suitable employment.
In
addition to addressing this issue, it is also vital that the
unemployment currently prevailing among our graduates should be given a
serious attention and appropriate remedial measures implemented as an
urgent priority without allowing the conditions to deteriorate any
further. It is necessary that short-term and long-term measures should
be taken to tackle both these issues which are interconnected.
Employability of Graduates
Employability
in the broadest sense covers the preparation of a person to apply for a
suitable position, facing a successful interview and remain in the job
with emphasis on professional advancement. Basically, he or she will be
empowered with confidence to become a successful person as a life-long
learner and a great achiever. He should be able to apply his knowledge,
skills and competencies acquired during his training to the relevant
employment situation. While in employment they should have willingness
to change occupations to follow trends within professions. In general,
most employers look for flexible staff who will be able to adapt to
dynamic market conditions.
Most
local graduates assume that it is the duty of the government to provide
employment to graduates, after receiving free education from primary up
to university education. This is not the reality, and it does not
happen anywhere in the world. However, it is the function of state to
facilitate creation of more employment opportunities in the non-state
sector, industries and other institutions rather than overstaffing
already inefficient and unproductive state institutions.
Undoubtedly,
the mismatch between undergraduate training and employment
opportunities is widely considered as the prime reason for unemployment
among graduates. Traditionally, the universities have been training
graduates mainly for public sector employment. This situation has
changed over the years with the economic liberalization, rapid expansion
of the private sector in almost all the fields including health and
education and with increasing effects of globalization. This has
resulted in the shrinkage of state-sector employment and increase in
employment opportunities in the non-state sector. Thus, there is a great
need to re-structure and re-orient our tertiary education system to be
consistent with the market driven economy.
Most
of our graduates have a sound knowledge of their academic disciplines.
Yet, they mostly lack general knowledge, computer literacy,
communication and management skills and team work experience etc.
required of an ideal university graduate. These skills and experience
are required for them to fit into relevant employment situations.
With
so many graduates available in the labour market, most employers
complain that they have difficulties in finding candidates with the
required knowledge, skills and attitudes. It has been reported that most
employers prefer foreign graduates over graduates from local
universities except in professional disciplines. Foreign graduates have
an advantage over local graduates in employment mainly because most of
the foreign graduates have acquired the desirable employment skills in
their core curriculum and in their extracurricular activities. It is
therefore essential that our local graduates also should acquire these
skills to be competitive in the current labour market. Graduates in
specialized scientific disciplines and in professional fields such as
medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, engineering, architecture etc.
also need these skills because they are required in the professional
dealings with the public whether in government service or
self-employment. In addition, these skills will be extremely useful when
they seek foreign employment.