ECONOMYNEXT – Children who grow up and leave the care of SOS Children’s Villages have high employability, with the charity giving them skills and vocational qualifications needed in the real world, officials said.
“The employment rate of the ‘care leavers’ are as high as 98 percent,” the Deputy Chief Operating Officer of SOS Children’s Villages International, Shubha Murthi said.
“We make sure that a child has at least one employable skill when he or she leaves SOS Children’s Village.”
SOS Children’s Villages is a charity focused children who have lost or are in the verge of losing parental care. The charity operates in 136 countries.
“Apart from the vocational training we provide them financial management, home management, fire fighting and other training, which makes them marketable in workforce,” says National Director, Divakar Ratnadurai.
SOS Village runs free National Vocational Qualifications level courses in Sri Lanka to youth in vulnerable communities.
In Sri Lanka, the charity has 873 children at centres in Piliyandala, Galle, Anuradhapura, Monoragala, Nuwara Eliya and Jaffna. It supports 3,650 children in several ways.
Simrin Singh, country director of the International Labour Organization for Sri Lanka and the Maldives says kids there is a tendency in many countries for well in life compared to others who have had 13 years of education.
“Because, sadly they have had many a lot of experiences growing up so they are more prepared to the work environment with their creative and innovative skills and they tend to perform lot better in teams,” Singh said.
“All of these skills is what employers want.”
Each year 20 plus children enter the SOS system. As many as 60-70 children may join the workforce.
This year 15 children have qualified for university, an official said.
“Every child has a development plan from the age of 11-years in which we monitor the potential of them and create them a path accordingly,” Programmes Director, Dhananjaya Perera said.
“We have psychological and psychosocial programmes for them children to cope with the social environment.”
According to SOS Children’s Village, all the youth get a salary of over 30,000 rupees.
In Sri Lanka youth unemployment is 21.4 percent, according to census department data.
It is highest among A/L and above group 9.1 percent and O/L is 5.2 percent, Grade 10 and those below is 2.4 percent.
The total unemployment rate in Sri Lanka is 4.4 percent.
In Sri Lanka graduates from state universities hold hunger strikes in front of the main railway station demanding that part of the tax collection of the people be given to them as salaries and pensions, through non-existent jobs in the already bloated state sector.
The unemployed graduates have also been given the degree at the expense of tax payer, and are perfectly healthy. (Colombo/Sep14/2019)