Building a national wellness tourism curriculum for Sri Lanka

EU-funded competency-based training programmes for seven wellness occupations, 2022–23

The challenge

Sri Lanka faced a shortage of about 300,000 skilled tourism workers before COVID-19 (SLTDA), while wellness tourism had been named a priority in the National Export Strategy 2018–22. The country lacked a coherent, nationally aligned set of wellness courses that could be delivered by training centres and recognised in the NVQ Framework.

What I did

• Led the team designing seven occupation-based courses: Wellness Centre Receptionist, Concierge, Supervisor, Wellness Facility Manager, Spa Therapist, Ayurveda Therapist and Yoga Wellness Trainer.
• Set a credit structure of 15 guided learning hours per credit, giving each course 60–81 hours and 4–5 credits.
• Aligned every course with the Sri Lanka NVQ Framework and built in recognition of prior learning (RPL) for experienced workers.
• Produced the full materials set: Programme Guide, Course Handbooks, Training Centre Guide, Assessment Guide, Facilitator Manual, and an RPL Handbook with Record of Achievement.
• Trained trainers to deliver the courses in a blended format.

Outcome

• Seven nationally aligned wellness courses with complete trainer, assessor and centre documentation.
• Materials published under a CC BY-NC-SA licence (© European Union 2023) so training providers can reuse them.

Lessons

• Start from the occupations employers need, then work back to the credit structure and assessment.
• RPL matters in wellness, where many practitioners already hold skills without formal certificates.
• Complete toolkits (not just syllabi) make it realistic for centres to adopt a curriculum.