One of the main demands of the Aragalaya, which was in full swing by this time last year, was for a “System Change”. In other words, the call was for a re-calibration of the existing status quo in political and social life. This exemplified the frustration of the youth with the way things were being run at all levels of society. We have experienced the dangerous consequences of ignoring or neglecting youth sentiments – the two Southern insurrections of 1971 and 1988-89 were caused primarily due to the frustration of youth. They felt that the powers that be did not address their grievances and aspirations in a proper and satisfactory manner.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, once the youngest Cabinet Minister, has extensive knowledge of this aspect. President Wickremesinghe has reiterated that it is the responsibility of political leaders to the listen to the voice of youth and take appropriate actions, considering their demands for political and social change. The youth, especially first time voters will be the decisive factor at any future election and all political parties must get their ideas and views on development, reconciliation and other issues.
All political parties have been more or less guilty of not listening to youth and not giving them responsible positions. They have even flouted election laws that stipulated that at least 25 percent of the nominations should be given to youth, including young women. On the latter issue, Sri Lanka fares rather badly with less than 10 per cent political representation of women at all levels of governance. This is simply unacceptable in a country that produced the world’s first woman Prime Minister and later, a woman Executive President.
Youth in responsible positions
It is time that political parties tried earnestly to attract well-educated, professionally qualified youth members to their ranks. In local parties, a female can usually enter politics only if her father, brother, uncle or another male relative is in politics. This should change – a conducive environment should be created for both males and females who have no political ‘connections’ to enter politics. President Wickremesinghe has already spoken of plans to make Sri Lanka a developed country in just 25 years and youth inputs will be very valuable in this exercise. Thus we should have more youth in responsible positions if we are to reach this target. It may be a cliché, but today’s youth are indeed tomorrow’s leaders.
Not only political parties, business organisations too should give more opportunities to the youth, especially professionally qualified young women. How many of them can we find in corporate boardrooms? Only a very few. This too must change. Corporate entities must literally catch them young, through career fairs at schools and universities. By participating in these fairs, students gain an idea of what skills and qualifications are needed to find a job.
In fact, rising youth unemployment is one of the most significant problems facing economies and societies. At least 475 million new jobs need to be created over the next decade to absorb the 73 million youth currently unemployed and the 40 million new annual entrants to the labour market. Young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and are continuously exposed to lower quality of jobs, greater labour market inequalities, and longer and more insecure school-to-work transitions. In addition, young women are more likely to be underemployed and under-paid, and to undertake part-time jobs or work under temporary contracts.
Mismatch
One reason for youth unemployment, which affects all regions around the world, is a mismatch between the skills workers can offer and the skills which are in demand. This is known as structural unemployment. This is prevalent in Sri Lanka as well. If you glance through the vacancies sections of this newspaper, thousands of jobs are advertised, but some ads are repeated week after week, apparently because the employers cannot find suitable job takers. In other words, many people in the job market do not have the skills that employers need.
There should be a firm focus on skills development among both young males and females. The latter should be encouraged to venture into the more male dominated sectors such as motor mechanism/car repair, heavy vehicle/earthmoving equipment operations, welding and air-conditioning. Males too should be encouraged to take up sewing/tailoring, cookery and other vocations. Sri Lanka already has a good structure for vocational training, with technical colleges around the island and a central Vocational Training Authority (VTA). There is a national NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) certification system that is accepted in most countries.
Another key issue is that the informal workforce has had no formal training and depends on skills acquired by informal means. This translates into lower wages and career uncertainty. Thus it is always better to acquire formal vocational training. In Sri Lanka, a mason or carpenter may have several young Golayas (pupils or assistants) who learn the trade under him, but they have no certificates or formal qualifications. This may prove problematic if they apply for jobs at well-known construction companies here or abroad which generally require formal training certification.
The problem in Sri Lanka is not essentially the lack of vocational training opportunities. The main issue is that every student tries to enter a State university. This is impossible given that only around 25,000 university openings are available annually. This means that almost 100,000 students who do have the required admission qualifications cannot enter universities. The result is that a large number of students end up without getting any sort of job-oriented education.
This is one problem that our educationists and lawmakers have to address. Our curricula must be aligned with the needs of the job market, for students to find jobs more easily. Unfortunately, several vocational subjects were removed from the curricula some time back, the repercussions of which we still feel today. This should be rectified without delay. Unemployment and poverty are two social evils. If youth are skillful, they will get jobs and become self-reliant and many problems in society will be solved. Gainfully employed youth will also not turn to drugs, vice and crime. Parents and teachers should also encourage students who display a talent for skills and subjects other than textbook studies.
In Sri Lanka, it is virtually difficult to find a job that does not require a good knowledge of English. This is indeed why some private companies prefer school leavers who can speak good English over university graduates who are not very fluent in the language. English, though not essentially a vocational subject, must be taught to all aspiring job seekers. Our policymakers as well as our youth must also be aware of two more challenges – automation/robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digitilisation. The President has already appointed a task force to study opportunities in AI. These trends are likely to take some skilled jobs away, but at the same time, they might create new jobs that we cannot even predict today.
STEM education
Many skilled and educated youth also think of migrating either permanently or temporarily to another country in search of greener pastures due to lack of opportunities or low wages. This too must be addressed as a developing country like ours cannot afford to lose most of its best brains. Sri Lanka and other developing countries must also improve their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. More girls should be encouraged to take up STEM subjects both in school and university so that they can compete effectively with males in that sphere.
The youth can and should make a positive contribution to economic growth and their participation in both corporate and political decision-making will be vital in this exercise. A concerted effort should be made to involve more youth in politics at the proposed Jana Sabha, Local Government and Provincial Council levels, which are stepping stones to Parliament and even higher positions. This might lead to a new political culture and the much talked-about System Change.
