Skills, Not Just Visas: Is Sri Lanka Ready?

Ageing economies in Asia are demanding for specific human resources on specific service requirements, on a historic scale and paying far more than traditional employee services. Sri Lanka will have to win a bigger share of these jobs, and the foreign exchange they bring, only if it produces workers who are trained, certified and ready for the workplace. Training institutes and universities must lead that effort.

Key Figures

Sri Lanka’s migrant workers sent home US$ 8,076.2 million in 2025, up 22.8 per cent on the year before. That money helped steady the economy after the crisis. Yet most of it still comes from low-wage jobs in the Gulf. The bigger and more lasting opportunity now lies in East Asia, and whether we seize it will depend less on diplomacy than on how well we train our people.

South Korea and Japan are ageing fast. More than a fifth of Koreans are now 65 or older, and Japan’s population has been shrinking for over a decade. Both countries need foreign workers to keep their factories, farms, shipyards, building sites, hotels and care homes running. They recruit through regulated government systems and pay several times what the same work earns in Sri Lanka. They are also selective, and language ability matters most of all.

The Arithmetic of Korea-Japan Dollar Corridor

Korea clearly indicates how the system works. Sri Lankans go there on the E-9 visa to work in manufacturing, construction, fisheries, agriculture and services. To be selected for these job categories, they must pass the EPS-TOPIK Korean language test and join a roster kept by HRD Korea, a public agency.

In 2024, 7,122 Sri Lankans found jobs this way. Some 35,216 Sri Lankans now work in Korea, 28,583 of them under the Employment Permit System (EPS). Each can stay for up to four years and ten months and may return for a further term (Wahab, L. (2024, Nov; Economy Next, 2025, August).

This corridor is approximately estimated to bring in US$500–700 million a year. Every additional 1,000 workers placed in Korea is estimated to add US$ 15–20 million a year.

Japan is also emerging as a significant destination for international labour migration. As of October 2025, the country employed approximately 2.57 million foreign workers, representing an 11.7% increase compared with the previous year. In response to continuing labour shortages, the Japanese Government has established a target of accepting approximately 1.23 million foreign workers by fiscal year 2028.

This target comprises 805,700 workers under the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) system and 426,200 workers under the new Employment for Skill Development (ESD) programme. The ESD programme is scheduled to commence on 1 April 2027 and will replace the Technical Intern Training Programme. Its stated purpose is to develop foreign workers’ skills through up to three years of employment in designated sectors and to prepare eligible workers for progression to the SSW (Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 2026; Komichi, 2026).

Sri Lanka’s Current Progress and Remaining Gaps

Sri Lanka has only a small foothold in either market. Its workers make up about 3 per cent of Korea’s foreign workforce and about 9 per cent of its E-9 workers. In Japan the gap is wider. Nepal now has 235,874 workers there, up 25.7 per cent in a single year, and Indonesia’s numbers grew by 34.6 per cent. About 73,000 Sri Lankans live in Japan on all types of visas. Yet by mid-2025 only about 600 had gone through the government’s technical intern channel, and just 51 through the SSW programme.

Table 1: Future Prospect for Korea and Japan Job Markets

Sources: Statistics Korea and Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor via IHRA concept note; Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Jan 2026); Government of Japan cap announcement (Dec 2025); SLBFE 2026 deployment plan.

• The structure of foreign employment in Sri Lanka reveals a key problem. Of the 310,000 departures SLBFE plans for 2026, about 216,000, or roughly 70 per cent, are bound for Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
• Korea and Japan together account for 18,500, or about 6 per cent.
• The country is still sending most of its workers to the destinations that pay the least and train them the least.

Short-Term Harder but Long-Term Lucrative

The short-term outlook for Korea makes this harder. With the E-9 quota cut from 130,000 to 80,000 in 2026, 17 sending countries will compete for fewer places.

Employers will choose the candidates with the best language, the clearest discipline and the fewest workplace disputes. Sri Lanka can expand its share only by sending better-prepared workers.

Connecting Sri Lankan Talent with Korea’s Labour Demand

At home, the labour is available. National unemployment was only 3.9 per cent in 2025, but youth unemployment stood at 19.2 per cent. Joblessness is concentrated among young people, women and rural districts, and many more are underemployed in seasonal or low-productivity work.

These are precisely the workers who could be accommodated by regulated employment opportunities in East Asia.

The Key Challenges

Key strategic challenges require urgent attention:

• Improve language and communication proficiency: Many candidates are prepared primarily to pass language examinations rather than to communicate effectively and function independently in Korean or Japanese workplaces and communities.
• Enhance workplace-readiness preparation: Employers in both countries report concerns relating to punctuality, occupational safety, teamwork and professional conduct, despite many workers possessing adequate technical capabilities.
• Establish regulations for private training providers: A substantial proportion of preparatory training is delivered by private tutors and informal institutions without consistent quality assurance, recognised certification or effective mechanisms to prevent misleading employment promises.
• Improve alignment between training and employer-recognized standards: Many training programmes are insufficiently aligned with the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework and the sector-specific competency assessments applied in Japan.
• Develop reintegration mechanisms for returning workers: Although returnees bring valuable skills, savings and work experience, Sri Lanka lacks a systematic mechanism to reintegrate them into domestic industries, employment programmes or entrepreneurial activities.

Table 2: Sri Lanka and its competitors in the East Asian labour market

Sources: Sri Lankan residents in Japan of all visa categories (June 2025), not workers only; a comparable worker figure is not published in the same release. Sources: Japan MHLW foreign employment report (Jan 2026); Immigration Services Agency of Japan; Nepal Department of Foreign Employment via Republica.

Right-Mix and Prioritizing

• The first priority is to treat foreign employment as a skills export, not a labour surplus. That means moving the national mix steadily from unskilled Gulf placements to regulated, higher-wage East Asian jobs, with targets for Korea and Japan set by occupation, not just by headcount.
• Second, language and workplace training must become a recognised qualification with the force of a national standard. Candidates should finish with a certificate aligned with the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework, not only a test result.
• Third, the state should accredit training providers and publish their pass and placement rates. Candidates and their families deserve to know which institutions deliver results. This would also remove the space in which exploitative operators work.
• Fourth, Sri Lanka must build a ladder beyond entry-level work. Korea’s skilled E-7 visa and Japan’s SSW Type 2 category offer longer stays, higher wages and the right to bring families. Few Sri Lankans reach them because training stops at the entry test.
• Fifth, returnees must be brought back into the economy deliberately. A worker who spent nearly five years in a Korean shipyard or a Japanese care home is a national asset. Without upskilling, credit and recognition of prior learning, that asset is largely wasted.

Table 3: Global Best Practices and Lessons Learned for Sri Lanka

Source: Compiled from government and agency sources; see references below.

Closing the Skills Gap

The weakness is not demand. It is the supply of workers prepared to the standard employers expect. Training institutes must close five gaps.

Table 4: Mismatches between Demand and Supply

From Coaching to Competence

Training institutes must be equipped to fill these gaps, and teaching capacity alone is not enough. They also need a clear mandate, credibility with employers and accountability to the public. The countries that place the most workers in Korea and Japan show what works, and Sri Lankan institutes should apply the same practices.

• Demand-driven, outcome-focused training: Programmes must be designed around what Korean and Japanese employers actually need, and judged by results: pass rates, job placements and contracts completed. Certificates should be aligned with the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework, as the Philippines does through national skills certification.
• A human resource mandate: Language teaching alone is not enough. Institutes must also cover labour relations, workers’ rights and employment standards, so that workers understand their contracts and their obligations.
• Whole-person training: Language must be combined with workplace culture, occupational safety, labour rights, financial literacy and sector skills. The aim is to prepare workers to succeed in the job, not merely to pass the EPS-TOPIK or the Japanese skills tests. Germany’s Triple Win programme follows this model by training candidates to a working level of language before they leave.
• Protection of candidates: Training must be transparent and properly regulated, so that young people are protected from substandard providers and false promises of jobs. Institutes should publish their results and work within formal agreements, not informal arrangements.
• Research and reintegration: Institutes should study migration, remittances and the return of workers to inform national policy. They should also run upskilling programmes for returnees, so that skills earned abroad are put to work at home.
• Affordability and access: Fees must be fair and transparent. Blended classroom and online delivery should reach rural and low-income youth, as Indonesia has done through its public vocational training centres.

In short, coaching for a test is not enough. Sri Lanka needs training institutes that offer a credible, accountable path from training to employment and back into national development.

Building Strategic Partnerships

Training institutes must build formal links with partners at home and abroad to give their programmes standing. At home, the key partner is the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), for candidate referral and recognition of training. For Korea, institutes should work with:

• HRD Korea, to align training with the EPS-TOPIK and the employer roster
• the Korean Embassy, for endorsement and scholarships
• KOICA and the King Sejong Institute Foundation, for native-speaker teachers and teaching materials
• accredited Korean vocational colleges, for exchange and joint certification

The same model should be applied to Japan. That means working with the Japan Foundation and Japanese training partners on language and SSW skills training before the new Japanese system takes effect in April 2027.

The Way Forward

The window is open now, but it will not stay open on the same terms. Korea’s quota has tightened, Japan’s system changes in April 2027, and competitors such as Nepal, Vietnam and Indonesia are moving fast. Sri Lanka’s advantage must come from the quality of its workers.

That calls for a national commitment to industry-focused training, delivered by accountable institutions that meet recognised standards. Every worker placed in a regulated East Asian job means a family supported, a local economy strengthened and a skilled worker who will one day return home. Sri Lanka’s training institutes must rise to that task.

References

1. IHRA concept note, “Strengthening Korean Language Training and Workplace Readiness Programme at IHRA” (2026).
2. Foreign workers in Japan hit record 2.57 million. https://english.adnkronos.com/2026/01/30/foreign-workers-in-japan-hit-record-2-57-m/
3. Japan to cap foreign workers at 1.23 million through FY2028. https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2025122300443
4. SLBFE aims to send 310,000 workers in 2026. https://www.adaderana.lk/news/117681/slbfe-aims-to-send-310000-workers-for-foreign-employment-in-2026
5. Language training for Sri Lankans seeking jobs in Japan. https://www.adaderana.lk/news/110967/steps-taken-to-enhance-language-skills-and-training-of-sri-lankans-seeking-jobs-in-japan
6. 125,000 Nepalis find employment through EPS. https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/125000-nepalis-find-employment-through-eps-in-south-korea-10-83.html
7. Can we seize opportunity in Japan while it exists?. https://www.ft.lk/columns/Can-we-seize-opportunity-in-Japan-while-it-exists/4-775990