Profile of the Sri Lankan electrical engineering industry

Abstract

The electrical and electronic industry in Sri Lanka, although relatively small in itself, is a key service industry to other industrial sectors as well. In the study presented, a sample of around 300 companies/industries has been the surveyed from around 500 identified companies to obtain the profile of the electrical engineering industry. From the surveyed companies, more than 76.8% are in the electrical industry and these companies account for over 81.1% of the total employment provided. The energy supply sub sector provided 36.7% of the total employment, and is influenced heavily by the large workforce of the CEB. The electrical services industry, which is mostly dominated by the small enterprises, contributes to 20.9%, while electrical products sector accounts for 23.5% of the employment. The majority of the industry’s employment is concentrated in the operational grades (75.8%) where the technical skills requirements are quite specific for a particular role and quite diverse for different roles. The skills requirement becomes more generalized, with more emphasis for managerial qualifications, as one goes higher up in the occupational structure. At the operational levels, the vast majority of the workers are with either GCE O/L or A/L qualifications (65.2%). On the other hand, higher education qualifications are much more sought after at the managerial level and decision making level with 72.2% of the managers and 88.8% of the decision makers possessing a degree or above qualifications. .The growth potential of the electrical and electronic industry has been estimated, based on census and statistics of GDP growth rates of similar industries, by categorising the industry into five sub-sectors, namely energy supply, electrical products, electrical services, export oriented electronics, and local consumer electronics and services. The forecasted annual growth of employment for the industry is 14.4% (Electrical industry 13.7% and electronics industry 16.8%).