Private IT schools, main producers of required experts

Tamara NISSANKA

“Private sector IT educational institutes currently makes the largest contribution to the produce experts required by the industry said General Manager, Virtusa Corporation Madu Ratnayake at the NICS IT - BPO Capacity Summit.

He emphasised the need to increase private sector investment in ICT education for Sri Lanka to excel further as an IT- BPO offshoring destination. Making advanced ICT education more affordable and accelerating ICT teaching capacity development through methods such as teacher scholarship programs and increasing English competency levels were proposed at the summit.

He said, “The industry is worth an estimated US$ 275 and employs over 11,000 people in Sri Lanka. The country’s IT- BPO growth potential chiefly depends on the supply of qualified professionals and that with an accelerated strategic initiative on workforce development, industry leaders targeted to reach a total export value of US$ 1 billion and increase the employee headcount growth in the IT- BPO industry to over 100,000 by 2010.”

Through a comprehensive presentation documented by leading stakeholders in the IT- BPO exporting associations, government bodies and academics, Ratnayake pointed out identified short term and long term initiatives to ensure improvement in the industry.

Launching a nation wide awareness campaign for IT- BPO careers, developing an ecosystem of innovation, improving basic IT and English literacy for all were among the long term proposals set forth at the summit.

In a panel discussion held at the summit COO of Golden Key Institute of Computing Technology, Kapila Giragama revealed, “As trainers we experience a severe lack of opportunities, when it comes to educating the required IT workforce. Students are not aware of the market for which they are being trained and sometimes look at CIMA/CIM and IT as last resorts” he said.

Speaking at the event Chairman/CEO of Quatrro (India) Raman Roy said, “ Sri Lanka should meet the urgent need of creating a delegate friendly environment for fiscal and non fiscal requirements. Setting a tax architecture that facilitates and encourages investment by foreign BPO companies is of urgent need to Sri Lanka.”

The Indian IT- BPO industry, according to Roy, is worth US$ 8.3 billion and provides employment for over 1.6 million people. He said, “For each direct employment in the Indian IT industry, six indirect jobs are created” he said.