Courses After O/L in Sri Lanka — NVQ Course Finder
Tell it what you finished at school and it lists the NVQ courses you can actually enrol in right now — with the level awarded, the typical length, which public provider runs it, and the TVEC entry criterion you met. No signup, no ads.
How it works
This is not advice and it is not a ranking. It is a filter over 84NVQ-titled qualifications from the TVEC National Competency Standards register, run against the entry criteria the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission publishes in the NVQ Framework's entry-and-exit column. Every row kept, and every row rejected, is decided by a published criterion — never by a score, a weighting or an opinion.
Step 1 — your school record becomes an entry rung
The framework states entry criteria per level, in words. To compare them against a person, the tool collapses “what I have finished” onto a single 0–6 ladder it calls an entry rung — an internal comparison number, not an NVQ level. Grade 8 or below is rung 0; Grade 9 completed, or having sat GCE O/L at all, is rung 1; at least one O/L pass is rung 2. The rung that matters most is 3: 6 O/L passes including 3 credits — or an NVQ Level 3 certificate, which reaches the same rung by a different road. GCE A/L and an NVQ Level 4 certificate both sit at rung 4, which is why SLIATE treats them interchangeably for Higher National Diploma entry.
Step 2 — each course states the rung it needs
A course's required rung defaults to the framework rule for its NVQ level:
- NVQ 3 — Grade 9 completed, or GCE O/L sat (result not required).
- NVQ 4 — GCE O/L with 6 passes including 3 credits, or NVQ Level 3 in the same field.
- NVQ 5 — GCE A/L, or NVQ Level 4 in the same field.
- NVQ 6 — NVQ Level 5 (National Diploma) in the same field.
- NVQ 7 — NVQ Level 6 (National Higher Diploma), or NVQ Level 5 with the bridging entry.
Two bodies override that default with their own published criterion: SLIATE admits to its Higher National Diplomas on GCE A/L or NVQ Level 4 — a rung below the generic NVQ 6 rule — and DTET admits to the National Diploma in Technology on GCE A/L. Each override is printed on the course row, so the rule is auditable rather than hidden in the code.
Step 3 — subject gates, applied narrowly
A course is filtered on a named subject only where the provider publishes one: the three National Diploma in Technology streams name Mathematics and Science, and the SLIATE engineering and quantity surveying diplomas name Mathematics. No NVQ Level 3 craft certificate is gated on a subject, because none publishes such a requirement. Courses whose criterion could not be established are left out of the register rather than guessed at.
Step 4 — length, field, and the two lists
Eligible courses are capped by the length you asked for, narrowed to your field, and sorted by NVQ level descending then length ascending: the highest award you can reach, in the least time. The second list — “one step away” — holds courses that fail exactly one criterion and sit no more than two rungs above you, with the failing item named verbatim, because most people landing here do not yet qualify for the thing they want and “no results” is a useless answer. The length cap is deliberately not applied to it: a course you cannot enter yet is not made more reachable by being short.
The cross-check behind the badge
The “TVEC criteria verified” badge is not decoration. Your entry ceiling is derived twice: once by walking the rung ladder down from NVQ 7, and once by a separate predicate table that evaluates each level's published criterion against the raw form without looking at the rung at all. The badge turns only when both agree, so if the two ever drift apart in a future edit the page says so instead of quietly printing a wrong list.
Worked examples
Fields covered
Ten trade groups, drawn from the TVEC National Competency Standards register and delivered by TVEC-registered public providers. Private institutes are not listed.
| Field | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Automobile & motor trades | Vehicle mechanics, auto electrical, body repair and spray painting. |
| Construction & masonry | Masonry, carpentry, plumbing, tiling, draughting and site supervision. |
| Electrical & electronics | Wiring, industrial electrical, refrigeration and air conditioning, electronics repair. |
| Information & communication technology | Hardware, networks, graphic design, web development and IT diplomas. |
| Metal, welding & fabrication | Welding, machining, sheet metal, aluminium fabrication and fitting. |
| Agriculture & food technology | Field crops, floriculture, dairy, landscaping and food processing. |
| Hospitality & tourism | Cookery, bakery, food and beverage service, housekeeping and front office. |
| Beauty, garment & textiles | Beauty culture, hairdressing, dressmaking, pattern making and garment quality. |
| Business, accounting & office | Book-keeping, accounts, office administration and the SLIATE HND routes. |
| Printing & media | Screen and offset printing, desktop publishing, graphic design and video. |
Frequently asked questions
Sources & references
- TVEC — National Vocational Qualifications Framework (levels, awards, entry and exit criteria)
- TVEC — National Competency Standards register and registered training institutes
- Tertiary and Vocational Education Act No. 20 of 1990 (as amended) — LawNet
- VTA — Vocational Training Authority of Sri Lanka
- NAITA — National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority
- DTET — Department of Technical Education and Training
- SLIATE — Higher National Diploma admission criteria
- UNIVOTEC — University of Vocational Technology (B.Tech entry)
- UGC — Admission Handbook (alternative entry route)
Entry criteria and course titles were last cross-checked against these sources on 2026-09-24. Course lengths are typical full-time lengths and vary by centre; intake dates, fees and per-centre availability are not modelled here because no stable published source exists for them. If you find a course in the NCS register that belongs on this list, or a criterion that has changed, email me and it ships the same week.
Related tools
Already hold a certificate? The NVQ level and equivalence lookup tells you what it is worth. Heading for a Higher National Diploma instead? Check the SLIATE HND eligibility checker. Still deciding between school and a trade? The A/L stream eligibility checker covers the other road.
Comments & feedback
Spotted a bug or want an improvement? Tell us — our team reviews every comment, and good ideas get built. Comments are public and anonymous.
Found a course that belongs here, or a criterion that has changed?
Email me at [email protected] — most fixes ship within 24 hours.