Higher Education Reforms #ClearHerPath to Skills and Jobs in Sri Lanka

After graduating from Sri Lanka’s University of Kelaniya with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Literature, Tharuvi Nanayakkarawasam was eager to start her career and make her mark on the professional world.

“I wanted to enter the corporate world and slowly climb the ladder,” she explained.

Tharuvi’s hopes are shared by hundreds of thousands of young women and men who enter the job market or pursue higher education with the goal of getting a good job. But as many of them are learning, getting a job is neither easy nor guaranteed.

The World Bank estimates that nearly one million young people will enter Sri Lanka’s workforce over the next decade. Job creation won’t keep pace with demand, as only 300,000 jobs are projected to be created in the same period.

At the same time, not everyone in the job market has the professional skills they need to succeed—especially in sectors like tourism, healthcare, research and information and communications technology. These sectors have high potential for employment and offer richer career opportunities and higher salaries.

In 2022, only 23 percent of college-age Sri Lankans were enrolled in university programs that equip students with the language, critical thinking and other skills that employers value. Enrollment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)—which can qualify graduates for more specialized professions—is particularly low. In 2019, only a third of all university students pursued degrees in STEM. Out of this number, only 27% of women students studied STEM courses and more than half of this cohort chose to specialize in biological sciences over math, engineering and biotechnology.

Female graduates, who tend to pursue humanities and arts degrees, are at a particular disadvantage when it comes to competing for certain jobs. As Tharuvi confirms, “When you're from the Faculty of Humanities there's this misconception that you won't be well equipped with technology or the needs that are required by the corporate world or the academia.”

Helping women and young people get AHEAD

Reforms to Sri Lanka’s university programs are helping to build a skilled workforce that can help young women and men compete for the jobs of the future and position the country for growth in the global economy.

Launched in 2017, the World Bank-supported AHEAD program aimed to strengthen Sri Lanka’s higher education sector by increasing its economic relevance and helping the country become a competitive middle-income economy through a three-part strategy: raising overall enrollment in higher education by improving degree programs essential for economic development, improving the quality of university education—especially in terms of its relevance to the labor market—and promoting more innovation through partnerships between academia and industry.

Taking Access to Higher Education to the Next Level

Recognizing the vital role of higher education in driving economic growth and shared prosperity, Sri Lanka’s policymakers launched a comprehensive Higher Education Development Program in 2016, focusing on increasing enrollment in priority STEM disciplines and improving access to STEM courses for all students, including arts and humanities students who are usually women. AHEAD was created to support this strategy. The results were remarkable, showing that STEM enrollment increased by 10% annually, growing from 42,279 students in 2017 to 69,029 students in 2023.

Higher education institutions in the most remote areas of the country saw a significant rise in enrollment as STEM faculties built new facilities and upgraded existing ones to increase their capacity. The Faculty of Technological Studies at Uva Wellassa University, located in one of Sri Lanka's least developed provinces, experienced more than a 100 percent increase in enrollment in 2023 compared to 2017, after establishing advanced laboratories in microbiology, food systems, and biosystems, funded by a grant from the AHEAD program.

To enhance the quality of degree programs and foster a new generation of scholars with advanced research skills that can make them more competitive in the job market, the government introduced a competitive scholarship program for close to 200 young academics to pursue postgraduate degrees at universities abroad. Choshani Dalukdeniya returned to her home institution, Sabaragamuwa University, after earning her PhD on the functional capabilities of human gut microbiota at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. She is eager to explore the untapped prebiotic potential of Sri Lanka’s indigenous herbs and underused crops: “I hope to conduct large-scale research on improving children’s health and nutrition through gut-microbiota-based interventions.”

Students also gained opportunities to improve their technology skills, enhancing their employment prospects, especially those in the traditional arts and humanities track. To enrich her humanities degree and gain additional qualifications, Tharuvi took the "ICT for the World of Work” training, which helped her secure a job as a science course demonstrator at her university’s Department of Industrial Management.

Improved access to STEM and IT training, and the opportunity to acquire more advanced professional skills are helping Tharuvi and other women like her pursue a career in the corporate world. “My training helped me to interact with people professionally, whether it's my presentation skills or whether it's my soft skills handling other people. It helped me to make my work more efficient,” she says. “I feel when you follow courses like this, it makes you more confident and way more versatile in whatever arena you choose. It helps you to climb the ladder in a more confident way.”