The capacity forum of the Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) has recently launched a university-level skill development initiative, encompassing all state and private higher education institutes. This initiative will promote collaboration between the industry and academia for the betterment of the IT sector, and enhance Sri Lanka’s next generation with the relevant skills to take the industry to the next level.
As a part of this initiative, SLASSCOM signed a University Cooperation Agreement with renowned higher education provider Horizon Campus, which is a leading private university in Sri Lanka, with more than 1200 students enrolling in their study programmes annually, which encompass Sri Lankan, UK, US, and Asian degrees that comprise of 15 accredited degree courses offered under five faculties.
“Signing this agreement with Horizon Campus is a very important milestone for SLASSCOM who is driven to produce future-ready talent to support the accelerated growth of the IT/BPM industry. SLASSCOM will support Horizon Campus to create IOI stakeholders of the future – a key differentiator for the industry, and a crucial endeavor to achieve SLASSCOM’s vision of growing the IT and BPM industry of Sri Lanka to generate revenue of USD 5 billion in exports creating 200,000 highly skilled workforce and facilitating 1,000 startups by 2025,”shared Immediate past Chairman of SLASSCOM Mr.Channa Manoharan.
Chairperson for SLASSCOM Sandra De Zoysa added “This collaboration aims to inculcate the value propositions of Sri Lankan IT-BPM talent synonymous with our IOI ‘Island of Ingenuity’ brand by which we are identified – as innovators, problem solvers, co-creators and collaborators. We are happy to note that the IT-BPM sector is an integral part of the country’s economic development plan, with it we envisage seismic growth which will place a high demand on quality talent. SLASSCOM, is therefore confident that partnerships of this nature will benefit in producing the requisite talent much needed by the industry in order to support an exponential growth trajectory which will require the industry to more than double the current capacity by 2025”.
Nishan Mendis SLASSCOM Board Director further explained: “SLASSCOM has been engaging with higher education institutes in both the state and private sectors for a long time in terms of curriculum support and industry placements. Given the challenge of recruiting quality graduates to the ever-growing IT/BPM industry, SLASSCOM decided to replace the ad hoc and siloed engagements with meaningful and focused relationships, looking at the bigger picture, which brings mutual benefits to both parties: industry support for universities and an avenue for capacity building for SLASSCOM.”
Endorsing these views, Chairman of Horizon Campus Upul Daranagama commented “We are extremely delighted to be getting on board this partnership with SLASSCOM, and this enthusiasm is shared by our students who love this kind of industry collaboration. SLASSCOM has a motive to promote Sri Lanka as an Island of Ingenuity, and as academia, we are there to support them; the campus also encourages and supports the students to become entrepreneurs in the ICT industry, which echoes a key component of the SLASSCOM agenda.
The agreement signed between Horizon Campus and SLASSCOM covers several areas, including, first and foremost, the embracing of SLASSCOM’s Island of Ingenuity (IOI) brand by the university. The agreement also includes the support that SLASSCOM will provide in terms of curriculum design, where the chamber will appoint resource personnel from the industry to ensure that the university curriculum is up to date and tailored to suit industry requirements. In addition, the chamber will facilitate industry placements for university students. Horizon Campus will also utilize SLASSCOM’s Future Careers Bridge platform to incorporate its professional framework to inculcate core professional skills in the students throughout their academic journey.
SLASSCOM as the national chamber for the knowledge and innovation industry in Sri Lanka with over 300 member companies accounting for 90% of the IT-BPM industry export revenue and the potential to become the #1 export revenue earner for the country, will continue to partner and work closely with academia to drive this agenda forward. SLASSCOM is supported in their initiatives by their Corporate Sponsor Dialog Enterprise.