Sri Lanka’s ‘GuideMe’ Wins First Place, Surpassing 27 International Digital Innovations

International recognition for Sri Lanka’s vocational education sector at the GIZ D4D Forum in Cambodia

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s national Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) navigation platform, GuideMe, has secured first place at the GIZ Asia-Pacific Digital for Development (D4D) Forum held in Cambodia, marking a significant international achievement for Sri Lanka’s vocational education sector.

GuideMe is designed to help young Sri Lankans identify vocational and technical education opportunities and make informed decisions about their future career pathways. The platform emerged as the top innovation among 27 digital initiatives submitted by participating countries, including India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The achievement represents an important international endorsement of Sri Lanka’s ongoing efforts to digitally transform the TVET sector. It also demonstrates the potential of technology-driven career guidance to make vocational education more accessible, efficient and responsive to the needs of young people.

GuideMe has been developed by the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education together with the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC), with the support of the GIZ – Vocational Training in Sri Lanka (VTSL) project.

Covering all 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the GuideMe platform brings together information on more than 9,800 NVQ and skills development programmes offered through over 2,500 public and private training institutions. By consolidating this information within a single digital platform, GuideMe provides students, jobseekers and young people with a convenient mechanism to explore training opportunities aligned with their interests and career ambitions.

A key feature of the platform is ‘Savi’, an AI-powered career guidance assistant capable of interacting with users in Sinhala, Tamil and English. Savi provides personalised guidance by considering users’ interests and educational backgrounds and helping them identify suitable career pathways and relevant training programmes.

The broader digital TVET ecosystem is further strengthened through the Virtual TVET Mobile Learning Kit introduced by GIZ, which provides access to more than 4,200 learning modules incorporating 3D, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies. Importantly, these learning resources can also be used in environments with limited or no internet connectivity, helping extend access to technology-enabled vocational education beyond conventional training settings.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence, AR, VR and digital learning technologies into vocational education reflects Sri Lanka’s transition towards a more modern, inclusive and technology-enabled TVET system.

GuideMe’s first-place recognition at the GIZ D4D Forum is therefore more than an award for a digital application. It is a strong endorsement of Sri Lanka’s direction in transforming vocational education through innovation, improving access to career guidance and connecting young people with skills, training opportunities and future employment pathways.

This international recognition is expected to provide fresh momentum to Sri Lanka’s efforts to position its TVET sector for a new digital era—one in which technology plays a central role in helping young people acquire the right skills, identify the right opportunities and build stronger futures.