Dr Ganga Tilakaratna highlights digital skills as key to bridging the skills gap and tackling youth unemployment in Sri Lanka

14 December 2024

IPS Research Fellow and Head of Poverty and Social Welfare Policy Research, Dr Ganga Tilakaratna highlights the importance of digital skills in enhancing the employability of youth in the modern labour market and addressing the prevailing skills mismatch and high youth unemployment in the country. She made these remarks while speaking at the Regional Consultation Workshop on Innovative Ideas and Knowledge Sharing organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue, (CPD) Bangladesh in collaboration with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, held at Hyatt Regency Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal, on 14 December 2024.

Speaking at the session on ‘Employment Creation Through Technology’, Dr Tilakaratna pointed out that digitalisation has generated new employment opportunities for youth, such as internet-based virtual work and on-demand work for creative and technical services. Platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer offer opportunities related to various creative and technical services, which require competency in digital skills to compete in the global market. She said that digital skills can also help boost entrepreneurship among youth and promote online businesses or e-commerce activities.

While digitation has generated various new employment opportunities for youth across South Asia, Dr Tilakaratna emphasised that ‘lack of job security and social protection benefits such as health insurance and retirement benefits attached to these jobs are issues of great concern’.

The workshop was attended by researchers, academia, and policymakers across South and Southeast Asia. The workshop was focused on three thematic areas: Universal healthcare systems, Employment creation through technology, and Climate change adaptation and mitigation.