A future for u’grads
Ruwanthi ABEYAKOON
Dean Faculty of Arts, University of
Colombo,Professor Athula Ranasinghe
Picture by Saman Sri Wedage
|
Kasun was one of the cleverest students in his class. He devoted most
of his time to studies to achieve his aim of obtaining entrance to the
university. It was a letter that declared the joyful news that he had
been selected to one of the universities in town. He knew that a new
page in his life will soon turn which will pull himself and his family
out of the jaws of poverty. As traveling daily from his home town Galle
was impossible, he decided to stay at the boy’s hostel in the university
premises. Life in the commercial city of the country and life at the
university was nothing of what he imagined. Many times the thought of
giving up crossed his mind but the hopes of his parents and siblings did
not let him do so.
As time elapsed, he fought his way through to final year bearing up
all miseries. Cramming his head with all the lecture notes he faced the
final exam with lots of hope and finally got through making his parents
proud of him. His next task was to get employment. When he walked in for
the first interview he had an air of dignity around him because he was
equipped with his degree certificate. But all the hopes died when he was
told he had not got adequate qualifications. After that each and every
interview he faced told him that holding a degree alone cannot earn him
a job of his dreams. Now his degree certificate lies in a dusty corner
of the house and Kasun is desperately waiting for a suitable job. This
can be the story of the several thousands of unemployed graduates.
|
A voice for
their rights! |
Finding an enduring solution to educated unemployment which is not a
new phenomenon has become a challenge to the authorities in the country.
Graduates who follow courses in humanities and social sciences face this
situation more than those who follow engineering, medicine or science
subjects.
Skills necessary
From an unemployed graduate’s point of view, years of studying under
difficult conditions become in vain when the suitable job remains out of
reach. From the employer’s perspective, a degree alone is not sufficient
for a job. Skills and competencies required are lacking in people.
The merits of an education in humanities and social sciences are
recognized worldwide. When a student learns about history, religion,
society or languages she is not only learning the subject. Ideally such
learning cultivates an inquisitive mind, problem solving skills critical
thinking abilities.
Asking for justice! |
An independently thinking person with knowledge, skills carrying a
world view associated with social justice, human rights and peace is an
important person in today’s society. Thus the authorities have a great
responsibility by them.
Dean Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo,Professor Athula
Ranasinghe expressed his views on this issue.
“Unemployment of graduates is a trend that has been observed over a
few years. With privatization government’s ability to absorb graduates
has been reduced. In the private sector production level is different
and different skills are required such as data analysis, Information
Technology and knowledge of English. In the faculty of Art or Humanities
non of the subjects are job oriented,” he said.
“It is a fact that graduates are unemployed and those who are
employed are under employed. They are not doing the job they are trained
for. Our economy has not expanded enough and the labour market of the
country is of a different nature. Until very recently civil
administrative jobs were only for arts graduates. But now there is an
exodus of agriculture graduates. Social science graduates are the actual
people for these positions but they are employed for other clerical
work. Their skills are not used,” he added.
Professor Ranasinghe however believes that it is best to adjust to
the labour market requirements. “We have realized that we have to adjust
to the labour market. These students in the university comprise of the
best students and they spend three to four years with us in the
university. In that context these youngsters are our responsibility. Yet
you cannot incorporate job oriented subjects into the degree programme.
Thus we have introduced soft skills such as Information Technology,
presentation skills, team work, time management, personality and skills
development and English language. Most of the departments have taken the
initiative to implement these short courses. At the same time the
government is also conducting leadership programmes at the national
level,” he said.
Attitudinal change
“In addition to that, the attitudes of the graduates about jobs have
to be changed. When they step out of the university they look for jobs
unconditionally in the government sector. Most of the graduates have a
negative attitude about the world affairs and at time they are
disappointed even about themselves. In a recent research done by our
university showed that in the first year undergraduates were determined
to obtain jobs in the private sector.
As they approached the third and the fourth years majority were
looking for public sector employment,” Professor added. He says that a
link between the universities and the private sector should be
established to solve this problem. “The lack of institutional level
links creates unemployment. To address this issue we have started to
send our undergraduates to private sector companies for professional
internships. These undergraduates work four days a week in these firms.
This helps in the change of attitude in both parties. Management of
these firms realise the skills of the graduates,” he said.
Professor also highlighted the responsibility of media in tackling
this issue. “Media has created a stigma in the society. Arts graduates
are considered as unwanted.
Not job oriented
They always highlight the fights between the faculties. Although
fights erupt there are positive things taking place, such as blood
donation campaigns, literary festivals which are completely ignored by
the media. Media also has a responsibility not to tarnish the image of a
graduate,” he added.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Higher Education is keen to solve this
issue which impacts country’s economy. “We are calculating the
employment ratio in each and every faculty of all the universities in
the country.
The recent statistics that we collected shows that the employability
of the Arts graduates is low. But engineering and medicine fields hold a
high ratio of employability. There are many arts graduates but their
subjects are not job oriented. There are no jobs suitable for them in
the labour market. So we are introducing new areas where jobs are
available such as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), hospitality
industry, information technology (IT), tourism and tri lingual
teachers,” Secretary to the Ministry, Dr. Sunil Nawaratne said.
The ministry also runs projects such as Improving Relevance and
Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE) which is assisted by the
World Bank. Under this project all universities are encouraged to ensure
quality and relevance in all their undergraduate courses while improve
English language competency, IT skills and instilling positive social
values.
Behind the scenes |
|
Making the point clear |
The misery! |
|