Facilitated by SLASSCOM:
Jaffna University students meet IT industry
SLASSCOM (Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies)
organised a two-day industrial visit for the Computer Science
undergraduate students from the Jaffna University. This is part of the
SLASSCOM capacity building initiative to bring Jaffna students to
mainstream IT and BPO industry. The students visited IFS, Virtusa, MIT,
eCollege, Cinergix Research and Sabre Technologies during their stay in
Colombo.
The main objective of this tour was to provide students with the
opportunity to meet IT industry professionals and engage in a knowledge
sharing session while getting an orientation to the available career
options within the industry. Twenty four students including two senior
lecturers were able to witness the working environments of the companies
visited. They were also guided in CV reviews, interview preparation, and
career selection during the sessions. This initiative comes under the
SLASSCOM Capacity Forum with its primary focus on initiatives to expand
the Sri Lankan IT and BPO talent pool to be globally competitive.
SLASSCOM acts as the catalyst of growth for the Sri Lankan IT and BPO
industry by facilitating trade and business, propagating education and
employment, encouraging research and innovation, and by supporting the
creation of a progressive national policy framework. Sri Lankan IT/BPO
industry is fast emerging as a key industry sector in Sri Lanka
contributing $ 275 million in export revenue and creating a large number
of professional jobs especially for the youth. "IT and BPO industry is
one of the fastest growing industries in Sri Lanka and our aim is to
ensure youth from all parts of the country gets an opportunity to be
part of this exciting future. We are delighted to have been able to
start the process of working with students from the North," SLASSCOM
Director and General Secretary Madu Ratnayake said.
"This visit has given us as academics a chance to meet eminent people
from the IT industry and to know the philosophies to be a leading and
successful establishment. Each company has given a different perspective
of the IT industry which gave us a clear picture about the industry.
This experience will help us to train the students in the right
direction such that they will be successful in the industry. The staffs
were very helpful and open. Companies tried their best to give us the
best not considering the time. They adjusted their times according to
our arrival and stayed late to complete the activities," Jaffna
University Senior Lecturer Dr Charles Eugene said. Dr Ramanan, another
lecturer at the Jaffna University said, "This is our first industrial
visit in the last two decades. This visit has provided awareness not
only to the cutting-edge technology in the IT industries in this country
but also to their infrastructures. I believe this visit will add more
value and confidence to the students in their degree program and in
finding jobs. Also, this might give an opportunity to us to collaborate
with the industry at some level of extents."
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