Youth Aspirations and Expectations in Sri Lanka following Economic Liberalisation. Location Study 9: Vogan Estate

Abstract

This is one of a series of reports examining shifts in the aspirations of youth for livelihoods, education and qualifications following the policies of economic liberalisation introduced from 1978. It examines shifts over time through comparisons of youth aspirations with the recollected aspirations of the youth’s parents. The study of aspirations is based exclusively on interviews with household members from different class groups. This report focuses on households in Vogan Estate, a low country private tea estate in the Western Province in which the majority of the population is Indian Tamil.Livelihoods of around half the sample population are based on estate-related work. Key findings from the surveys in Vogan Estate include: unemployment is high at 28%, with 35% of females and 22% of males unemployed only 31% of parents have post-primary education; by comparison, there has been a huge increase in the educational attainment of their children 81% of young people aspired to university, but 67% believed that they did not have the means to attain those goals, due primarily to lack of aptitude 75% of young people with professional aspirations aspired to a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Science degree 92% of young people had vocational aspirations, with around three quarters of females nominating dressmaking and 38% of males interested in computing the majority of young people felt that their vocational aspirations were attainable more young people aspired to government sector work than had their parents, but less than half of them expected to attain such employment