AHEAD Project

Activity 01: Enhancing Employability

Name: Dr. M. T. M. Mahees

Senior Lecturer – Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo

Position in the Project: Activity 01 – Coordinator

The Rational of the Activity 01 are;

• High unemployment rates of Arts graduates in comparison to graduates from other Faculties.
• Supporting more market-oriented graduate output to match market demands.
• Recommendations of Graduate Employment Census (2012) to allocate more time for industrial training, increased contact between universities and private sector, and revision of curricula focusing on demands of job market.

The 03 sub activities that the activity 01 focusses are;

1.1       Externships: a workplace training component that will be embedded into existing course units. Students are encouraged to seek workplace training.

1.2     Establishment of a skills council: Stakeholders of the council are educators, employer, employee and employment expectant students (4E framework). The Skill council will be responsible for:

(i)    Assisting educators of the FoA to modify and upgrade the existing curricular integrating inputs of the private sector (demand side),

(ii)   Short term professional engagements for teachers,

(iii)  Facilitating the provision of internationally recognized study areas/courses.

(iv)  Ensuring the professional development of students through enhancement of employability skills. Entrepreneurship training for students.

1.3      Conducting a tracer study on employability and maintaining an information management system