Sri Lanka’s IT and BPM industry as one of the nation’s fastest growing sectors with burgeoning potential both locally and overseas is currently in need of almost double the workforce it commands today.
Investing its efforts to bridge this talent gap for IT and BPM professionals in the market, The Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM) recently signed the first University Cooperation Agreement with Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), to share expertise and work together to foster closer ties between academia and industry to increase the output of high quality, industry-ready graduates required by the IT-BPM industry.
This collaboration aims to inculcate the value propositions of Sri Lankan IT-BPM talent as promoted in the Island of Ingenuity industry brand, in being innovators, problem solvers, co-creators and great collaborators. This industry academia partnership will also develop more industry aligned IT-BPM curricula covering more in-depth emerging tech content, including the embedding of professional frameworks which provides technical, business, and global acumen. Emphasis will also be placed on fostering entrepreneurship, through mentoring programs, industry led research projects, startup competitions such as the annual SLASSCOM National Ingenuity Awards, and connections to startup funding.
The signing of the agreement was held virtually with Nishan Mendis SLASSCOM Board Director, delivering the opening remarks on the increase in global demand for digitization and the opportunities this offered to Sri Lankan IT-BPM industry. He gave an insight into the need for building Sri Lanka’s talent quotient in this sector to compete successfully in the global market, and in creating a niche for high end products and services being exported from the “Island of Ingenuity”. He further explained that SLASSCOM will play an integral role in providing expertise to enhance curriculums and foster an industry ready workforce for the future. Nishan also spoke about the importance of embedding the IOI value proposition, to the capabilities and competencies of the students produced by the Higher Education Institutes so that the students embrace the IOI brand while they are still at the universities.
Prof. Lalith Gamage Vice Chancellor and CEO of SLIIT, who also holds the position as the Chairman of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) said that whilst knowledge will empower students in their respective subject areas, it was essential this knowledge be blended with an aptitude for application. Therefore preparing students to meet workplace demands; to transform information into work-related knowledge and develop ways to nurture future ready highly talented workers was important. He commended SLASSCOM for initiating this program, and said that he looked forward to working together to maximize in upskilling the “future ready” talent for the IT-BPM Sector.
Mr. Channa Manoharan, Chairman of SLASSCOM, thanked Prof. Gamage for being a strong supporter of the industry and his pioneering effort in producing the requisite talent for the industry, adding that given the current business and industry landscape, this was an opportune time for collaborations of this nature. Emphasizing on the strong industry relationships that SLASSCOM can bring to the table through its diverse membership, he outlined that the unique benefits SLASSCOM can offer, is the varied expertise that can be derived for students through real-world projects they can work on, and gain experience from having top industry mentors to guide their progress.
With the IT-BPM sector being an integral part of the country’s economic development, justified ever more strongly by the current pandemic which has rendered the sector as the backbone of a functioning society, and the growth of jobs and demand for quality talent increasing , SLASSCOM as the national chamber for the knowledge and innovation industry in Sri Lanka, hopes to make their partnerships with academia a game changer for employment and the industry, with this Cooperation Agreement being the first in a series of collaborations that it intends to form with higher education institutions.