Promotion of Decent Work for Young Women and Men through Enhancement of Employment Possibilities in Sri Lanka’s Sabaragamuwa Province and its two Districts of Ratnapura and Kegalle

The project offers a) life skills and career guidance, b) vocational and technical skills (e.g. soft skills and business English skills), c) start and improve your business and other business development services and d) employment and training counseling for gainful employment for youth. Project activities have been mainstreamed into the principal programmes of the partners. This will ensure sustainability. The rural youth from both plantations and surrounding villages - unemployed, underemployed, working poor and discouraged youth - in the Province of Sabaragamuwa with its two Districts of Ratnapura and Kegalle are the direct beneficiaries of project interventions. The project contributes to and aligns itself with the implementation of the National Action Plan for Youth Employment (YE NAP) in Sri Lanka. Project interventions also match the National Plan of Action for Social Development of the Plantation Community. The project identifies vocational training and skills upgrading options in respect of the plantation sector in order to provide improved choices for young women and men to be employed on the estates if they so wish – this strategy will be adopted on estates that suffer a lack of labour. Enterprise development – is another option provided to young men and women who are interested and have an aptitude to be self-employed and start their own business. A mentorship programme model successfully developed in another part of Sri Lanka will be replicated with adaptation to suit the enterprise environment of the plantation sector. A strategic intervention of introducing an attitudinal change (from negative to positive) in respect of entrepreneurship is being done through the formal schools system and Youth Corps using the established KAB (Know About Business) ILO tool and other awareness raising activities. In conclusion, downstream, the project supports and build capacity in key labour market institutions with key labour market service providers. This will in turn enhance their capacity to reach out to and assist young women and men to gain better access to the labour market. Upstream, the project provides improved knowledge about the labour market situation of rural youth with a view to inform local and national policy development. This will contribute to ILO’s Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) and consequently support the Government’s labour market reform strategy. The project provides youth employment policy advice with specific reference to ILO Convention 122 on Employment Policy – a Convention yet to be ratified by Sri Lanka. Tripartite District and National Project Advisory Committees are convened to help advise and guide the project to have maximum effect.

Project symbol

SRL/10/05/JPN

Admin unit

RO-Asia and the Pacific

Start date

01/06/2010

End date

31/12/2010

Total allocation

13725

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

13725

Development Partners

Japan, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Country/Countries

Sri Lanka

Outcomes

Skills Development