Despite internal conflict and the global financial crisis, Sri Lanka has made remarkable progress in the past decade, enjoying healthy economic growth and substantially reducing poverty. Moreover, Sri Lankans are the best-educated people in South Asia: the country has a 98 percent literacy rate, widespread access, high completion rates in both primary and secondary education, and gender parity in general education.
- Chapter two describes the general education and training system in Sri Lanka, especially the TVET sector.
- Chapter three examines the main drivers of skills demand and skills mismatches and gaps in Sri Lanka.
- Chapter four studies the relationship between education, training, and labor market outcomes, including skills already available in the workforce.
- Chapter s five and six analyze factors affecting the skills supply system, such as cost, financing, and governance (chapter 5) and private sector provision (chapter six).
- Chapter seven briefly reviews firm-based training in Sri Lanka based on evidence from the employer survey.
- Chapter eight assesses workforce development policies in Sri Lanka based on the World Bank's Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) framework. Finally, chapter nine provides the summary of main findings and outlines possibilities for the way forward in skills development in Sri Lanka.