Sri Lanka, April 11 -- Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has become a priority in the global development agenda as it addresses unemployment issues, productivity in employment and skill shortages experienced in many countries.

Sri Lanka also has given equal if not higher prominence to the TVET system in the country and many programs have been launched in the past few decades to develop quality framework of the TVET.

Formal TVET, as we know of it today, had its beginnings in 1893 when the first Technical College was established at Maradana to train skilled workers needed for the development of physical infrastructure such as laying of railway lines and construction of roads.

The period after independence (1948) kind...