Tourism sector:

Plans to generate over 24,000 Jobs in five years

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

The tourism sector expects to generate 4,875 jobs annually between 2011 and 2016 with the fast growing demand in the ICT sector specially for programming and software engineering jobs in Sri Lanka, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC), Labour Market Information (LMI) Section sources said.

There will be 62.5 percent job opportunities in hotels and restaurants, 13.1 percent in travel agencies, 9.7 percent airlines, 2.7 percent in tourist shops, 6.4 percent as guides and 5.6 percent in other related sectors created annually. They will be established under four categories such as direct employment category, managerial, scientific and professional category, technical, clerical, allied and nonsupervisory category and manual operative category, sources said.

Sources said that LMI analyzes the labour market trends in Sri Lanka and conducts demand forecasting in the labour market using the Labour Market Information Bulletin, Sector Based Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Provincial Vet Plans. There are 16 industry sector based VET plans already developed to assess the current industry perspectives and training needs of the sector with a reasonable forecasting for the next few years. VET plan for the ICT sector, construction industry and metal and light engineering industry are some of the examples for the specific VET plans.

According to sources, both formal and informal labour markets are covered by the analysis and International Standard Classification of Occupation-88 and International Standard of Industrial Classification are used for this analysis.

Labour market information is important for VET planners to respond with the labour market demand and trends in qualitative and quantitative aspects. The TVET sector will have the unique advantage of development works initiated in the Northern and Eastern Provinces which will create a large number of jobs in the future.