The Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC) has entered into an MOU with the Australian Government funded Skills for Inclusive Growth Programme (S4IG), managed by Palladium International Group to increase collaboration to strengthen skills development in tourism.S4IG is a skills development programme of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) implemented in Sri Lanka in accordance with the terms of a Subsidiary Agreement signed on 31 March 2022 between DFAT and the Sri Lankan State Ministry of Skills Development, Vocational Training, Research & Innovations.

Parties agreed on the national implementation of the landmark TVEC Reasonable Adjustment Circular, guidelines, and tools to increase accessibility and skill recognition for people with disabilities, as well as the delivery of a training module to TVEC assessors.  In addition, it was agreed that an Inclusion Toolkit will be created for use in assessor trainings and assessments in selected occupations.Data from the National Census of 2012 indicates a disability prevalence rate of 8.7%, with only 45% of youth with disabilities aged 15-19 years old attending upper secondary (grades 10 and 11) and collegiate (grades 12 and 13) levels. As a result, this segment of the population remains largely excluded from the labour market; 71% of adults with disability being economically inactive. The TVET system offers a solution to address the higher unemployment rate and low level of education among people with disabilities.

While historically people with disabilities are mainly enrolled in separate schools for education and vocational training, the recent policies issued by TVEC explicitly promotes training of persons with disabilities within mainstream vocational training institutes and support the transformation and incorporation of disability specific TVET programmes into NVQ framework. While enrolment of persons with disabilities in NVQ training courses remains so far limited, the circular aims to specifically remove assessment related barriers people with disabilities may face in the TVET system. This cooperation will support TVEC who is leading system changes to improve participation rates and ensuring all Sri Lankans are getting access to quality vocational training and access to employment.

TVEC will now enable the accreditation of S4IG-developed training courses/modules developed in collaboration with the tourism industry, government, and private hospitality-related training institutes. This will support  TVEC to create International Standard curricula.The MOU formalizes the recognition of prior learning (RPL) and upskilling of existing personnel in the hospitality sector to enhance the skills of chefs and kitchen operations staff and enables work-based and online assessment tools developed for the micro, small, and medium enterprises to be scaled out across Sri Lanka. The TVEC website will now incorporate online flexible learning opportunities in the tourist and hospitality industries.S4IG will support TVEC in creating tools for all district coordination committees to identify skills gaps and eliminate local skill mismatches to produce the needed skills for local economic development.  This planning tool kit will strengthen TVEC leadership in guiding training provision that is responsive to local employment opportunities and stimulate inclusive economic growth.