'Resolving education mismatch - a challenge facing Lanka'

Shirajiv Sirimane

LABOUR MARKET: 'Sri Lankan labour market is not fully geared to meet the future global market demand and there is an education mismatch that has to be addressed soon,' Director General Board of Investment (BoI) Prof. Lakshman Watawala said.

Speaking at the launch of the Ma Foi Academy career skills training institute in Colombo on Tuesday he said that a skilled workforce is very important to achieve long-term economic growth and for workers to earn a higher income.

"In addition, a skilled workforce is needed to increase productivity an competitiveness of products to compete in the global markets," he said.

He said that the flaws of the education system constitute one of the main reasons for school leavers and university graduates not finding employment.

"However steps are now being taken to iron out this problem and the private institutions too are introducing several courses with future business employee demands in mind," he said.

Ma Foi Management Consultants Lanka (Private) Ltd, a BoI approved entity in Sri Lanka and a fully owned subsidiary of Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd., India, with a network of 45 centres, opened its career training centre (Ma Foi Academy) in Sri Lanka recently.

Ma Foi Academy has been conceived with the objective of enhancing employability through developing skills and competencies of freshers who are geared to launch their career. The basic business model of the Academy is to identify the pool of manpower looking for jobs, the type of skills they need and offer highly focused industry oriented training programmes.

"Our training is not only for corporate, but open to taxi drivers and tour guides," said Head of Globe Academy, N. Indrasena.

"We have already found employment for over 2,000 in Sri Lanka after two years of operations," he said.

Since May 2004, Ma Foi has been a part of Vedior NV, a Euro 6.85 billion staffing services company which is the world's leading specialist staffing major and the third largest staffing solutions company in the world, providing flexible employment to a wide range of needs in 44 countries worldwide, including Europe, North America, Australasia, South Africa, South America and Asia. "

There is opportunity in BPO, soft skins and English training," he said.

"Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd established in 1992 has a sound reputation for a systematic and hands-on approach to Human Resources Consulting," said Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ma Foi Management Consultants (Global Operations), E. Balaji.

"Our success as a premier staffing company is mirrored in the fact that we have placed more than 53,874 personnel in 30 countries worldwide, over 588 of these being at General Manager and higher levels."

He said that they are looking at opening more centres in Sri Lanka.