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Colombo
Area Office |
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Technical
Co-Operation in Sri Lanka
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| JobsNet |
| Jobs
Net- The National Employment Sourcing & Delivery System
as the referral system benefits jobseekers, local and foreign
employers and self-employment seekers by providing referrals
for jobs and training, information, advice and Career Guidance.
It is an on-line referral system with a web interface at www.jobsnet.lk.
The project is a Public sector – private sector partnership.
As a National project the Ministry of Labor Relations and Foreign
Employment representing the Public sector joins hands with the
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, harnessing the support and active
participation of the private sector in this unique partnership.
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce manages Jobs Net. As at present
the project is funded by SIDA for its operations and HRD for
a period of 3 years with effect from 2004 while International
labor organization provides technical support. The Donor assistance
amounts to US$ 2162397. |
The
Hon. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Hon. Minister of Labor
Athauda Senavirathne, welcomed by the ILO – project advisor
at the Education Exhibition 2005 in Colombo. |
The
enduring vision of the JobsNet project is to effectively facilitate
the process of making Sri Lanka be a provider of globally employable
and competitive human capital, with the singular aim of enhancing
and sustaining the qualitative standard of living of all Sri
Lankans.Flowing from the vision the penultimate mission of the
Project is to develop and implement a service facility for jobseekers
and providers of all employment, including self employment,
through the use of modern Info-communications based interactivity,
upholding the values of meritocracy and transparency. |
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| The
governing project objectives encompasses,• Setting up
an efficient mechanism to source and create job opportunities
for Sri Lankans working closely with the government, private
and NGO sectors, both within Sri Lanka and overseas including
through the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE),
working as a partner of the Ministry of Employment and Labor. |
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A carrier counseling
cession conducted at Kandy |
•
Set up an island-wide network of job service centers to provide
efficient access to Sri Lankans to learn about the opportunities
and source them, facilitate the provision of jobs and provide
a referral service for appropriate training and counseling services,
including an Internet based virtual delivery system.
• To restore confidence levels of the public through setting
up of systems driven by national objectives and conduct of appropriate
public relations campaigns.
• Set up systems to enable close partnership between the
public and private sectors in the sourcing and delivery of jobs
and in facilitating training and counseling services.
• Work in close partnership with all stakeholder government,
private sector and NGO agencies, the ILO and other multilateral
and bilateral agencies and to support the long-term implementation
of the systems.
•Ensure that the project will develop on a self-sustaining
management and revenue model without dependence on government
funds for its operation after its initial implementation phase. |
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At
the moment JobsNet has more than 100.000 jobseekers registered
and about 3.000 companies are paying members. All different
categories of jobseekers are represented, but there is an important
gap between the characteristics of the jobseekers and the requirements
of the employers. More than 60.000 vacancies have been served
up till June 2005. An estimation of 20.000 jobseekers found
a job with the support of JobsNet. |
| The
change in government in Sri Lanka caused a drop in performance
of the project due to some uncertainties about the future. A
renewed start was taking in the second quarter of 2004 end since
then a constantly growth on all activities was achieved. The
impact of the tsunami disaster is reflected in the figures covering
the first quarter of 2005.Skills matching, control of job candidate
qualification, job coaching and job counseling are the most
critical functions performed by JobsNet. Within the capacity
building efforts for the staff a substantial part of it goes
to training in counseling and career guidance skills. 80% of
all jobseekers have been referred to one or more vacancies.
About 6.000 jobseekers were referred to additional training
programs. |
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Presently
it mainly generates revenue through membership fees from the
registered employers. Special activities have been undertaken
to target small and medium enterprises, underrepresented in
our actual list of members. All centre manager’s visits
new enterprises weekly and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce is
also to increase its efforts to attract new members.However
it should embark on other additional revenue generating activities,
in attempt to get to financial sustainability. New initiatives
are to be launched in the near future The many efforts, with
good results, by JobsNet in the field of organizing surveys
and information gathering related to labor market and livelihood
recovery indicated a promising field of new activities for the
future. |
| Presently
the JobsNet project is seeking to convert its self into a legal
entity which has an existence on its own. One of the possibilities
is turn the project into a private limited company, having public
and private shareholders. In the near future reports are to
be published on gender issues and the gap between jobseekers
and vacancies in Sri Lanka. |
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