Designed to provide much needed guidance and skills development for Sri Lankan migrant workers, SRMW will be fully integrated with the US Agency for International Development supported US$18 million youth employment and entrepreneurship project, YouLead.

“YouLead’s work over the past three years on career guidance and vocational skills development, combined with more than 10 years of experience by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) working to improve the overall well-being of migrant workers, makes the two partners an ideal match.

The Swiss contribution of $1.5 million over three years will provide guidance and skills training for thousands of migrant workers, as well as helping returned migrant workers assess their skills learned overseas and link them to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in Sri Lanka,” YouLead said in a media release.

SRMW, part of SDC’s ‘Safe Labor Migration Program Phase IV’ was formally launched on March 2 at the Embassy of Switzerland in Colombo, by Ambassador Dr. Dominik Furgler of Switzerland and Ambassador Alaina Teplitz of the US.

The project is designed to make overseas employment safer and more rewarding, both financially and professionally, by providing better occupational information and by increasing the skill levels of Sri Lankans who go abroad for work.

It will also work to help reintegrate returning workers into meaningful productive opportunities in Sri Lanka. SRMW comes at a particularly important time as more than 50,000 migrant workers are returning home due to the pandemic.