Sri Lanka | 25 May 2026

The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (COL-CEMCA) and the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) convened an Expert Consultation Session on Professional Elderly Caregiving on 25 May 2026, conducted in hybrid mode at OUSL. The session brought together nursing faculty, curriculum specialists, and vocational qualifications experts to align COL-CEMCA’s existing elderly caregiving courseware with Sri Lanka’s National Vocational Qualifications Framework (NVQF) and lay the groundwork for a university-level Certificate Course in Professional Elderly Caregiving.

The consultation was inaugurated by Senior Professor P.M.C. Thilakarathne, Vice Chancellor of OUSL, and opened with a keynote address by Professor B. Shadrach, Director of COL-CEMCA. Session proceedings were coordinated by Dr. K.A. Sriyani, Head of the Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, OUSL.

The need for this initiative is rooted in a demographic shift that Sri Lanka can no longer defer. With over 12 per cent of the population already aged 60 or older — a figure projected to exceed 27 per cent by 2050 — the traditional family-based care model is under mounting strain from urbanisation, migration, and changing household structures. The consultation directly addresses the resulting shortage of trained, certified caregivers capable of managing the complex needs of an ageing population.

The substantive session, led by Prof. Karunesh Saxena of Sangam University, examined core competency domains for professional elderly caregiving, international and regional standards, and appropriate learning outcomes and assessment approaches for a university-level certification aligned to NVQF Level 3. This was followed by a focused session on mapping caregiving competencies to specific NVQF qualification levels, co-facilitated by Dr. A.V.P. Madhavi, Senior Lecturer in Nursing at OUSL.

The curriculum to emerge from this process will lead to a competency-based certificate course structured across four modules — covering foundational care environments, activities of daily living, holistic well-being, and critical interventions — with a pedagogical approach that prioritises practical application, including problem-based learning and clinical simulation, over rote instruction.

The expert consultation forms part of a broader collaboration between COL-CEMCA and OUSL to professionalise elderly care as a recognised vocational and academic discipline in Sri Lanka.