How to prepare Sri Lanka for ‘21st Century Profession’?

Today, the ICT profession has become a very important and essential profession because of the evolution of the world economy to a knowledge-based one, the processes of globalization, the amazing developments of the computer and information technology and ICT becoming essential for every field. Because of these reasons, the ICT profession has been crowned as the ‘21st Century Profession.’ Dr Dayan Rajapakse, the Chairman of the ESOFT Group of Companies elucidates how, as a developing country, Sri Lanka could be prepared for this profession that is ascending in popularity and importance within a very short time of about 50 years. Dr Dayan Rajapakse with 20 years experience in the ICT education field is the founder of the ESOFT Group of Companies.

The information and communications technology field with a short history of 50 years has today become a most important, essential, highly paid, valuable profession with the highest acceptance from the society. Because of these reasons, the ICT profession is recognized as the ‘21st Century Profession’.

The ICT profession reached these heights due to the social, economic, political and technical transformations that occurred in the world. Transformations such as the breaking down of the socialist system and the establishment of a multi-party system, the deterioration of the closed economy system and the establishment of the free competitive economy system, the globalization process, the amazing developments in the information and computer technology, the birth of a knowledge-based economy and the ICT technology becoming essential for all fields, were instrumental in taking the ICT profession to the present level. Today, it has become a profession equal to medical, legal and engineering professions.

By the end of the 20th century, the socialist world broke down and a capitalist world based on multi-party parliamentary democracy was established. As the capitalist system was established, the free market economy system was established globally. Information technology was a great help for the proliferation of the free market economy system and today, information technology is the life blood of that system.

Under the free market economy system, competition was created in the market to sell goods and services to the public. As an example, today in Sri Lanka, there are a large number of State and private banks to supply banking services to the consumer public. There is immense competition among those banks to supply a more efficient banking service to the people. When there is competition, every organization does their best to present a good or a service that is higher in quality that what is supplied by their competitors to their consumer public. In this, minimization of production and service costs is essential. The efficiency has to be increased to minimize the costs and to do that, modern technology has to be employed. The modern technology of every field is based on information technology.

Presently in the world, a knowledge-based economy is being created. Accordingly, in the 21st century, the base of the world economy will be knowledge. Information technology is essential for the acquisition and dissemination of new knowledge.

During the past two decades, amazing developments have taken place in the telecommunications and communications fields, thereby immensely accelerating the globalization process. With the addition of computer and information technology, the world became a global village. Information technology has no geographical, cultural and language boundaries. If one goes to any internet cafe in any one of the big and small cities of Sri Lanka, one can see any amount of the general public on live chat with their relatives abroad.

The specialty of information technology is that it has become an essential ingredient in every field. Accordingly, ICT professionals are essential for every field. As an example, information technology made a revolution in the traditional banking field. The most efficient banking services people make use of today are based on information technology. e-banking and mobile banking are very popular among the banking clientele today.

The field of information technology is a vast treasure house. Bill Gates, the proprietor of the Microsoft Company of USA, considered the richest person in the world, earned US $ 56 billion, a huge amount of money, by doing business in the ICT field.

The wealth of the founders of the Google Search Engine, 37-year-old Sergey Brin and 38-year-old Larry Page is over US $ 20 billion. The owner of facebook, Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire in an unbelievable way. He is now worth over US $ 13 billion. These examples clearly show that when youth with entrepreneurial skills enter the information technology field, they can become successful entrepreneurs with the greatest ease. They can make an impact on the economy of a country.

The number of jobs in the ICT field is increasing year by year. So, one can enter into this professional field at any time. Even at present there are a large number of career opportunities in the ICT field in Sri Lanka and the number of career opportunities are increasing year by year. But the problem in this field, as in the other fields is that there are no qualified personnel for the job opportunities existing in the employment market.

If ICT has become an essential part in the day-to-day lives of the people embracing all sections of the country and if it is the life blood of the modern knowledge economy and if there are ample employment opportunities in this field, how can Sri Lanka be prepared for the ICT field as a developing country? For those preparations to be a success there are so many responsibilities and obligations that has to be fulfilled from the direction of the State sector, the private sector, the youth population and the people of the country.

The government has realized the timely and future importance of the ICT field. Accordingly, an organization dedicated to the ICT field, the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) has been established. Further, a separate Ministry has been established for the telecommunications and ICT fields.

A Presidential Task Force of English and ICT have been established to fast track the promoting of those fields. ICT has been introduced as a subject for G.C.E. Ordinary Level and Advanced Level syllabi. Students are being prepared for external and internal ICT degrees of several universities of Sri Lanka. The government is expecting a foreign exchange revenue of US $ billion by the year 2015. The government further expects to increase the ICT literacy rate to 75% within the next five years.

When preparing the country for the ‘21st Century Profession’, that is ICT, it is essential that young people with exceptional ICT talents are attracted to the field and they are trained to be international level professionals. Only the State and private sector higher educational institutions can groom the youth who are attracted to the ICT field to be ‘super professionals.’ At present, the students who have completed their G.C.E. Advanced Level examination do not have any basic knowledge or awareness of ICT, the reason being that there are no facilities to study the ICT subject as a mainstream subject for G.C.E. Advanced Level examination in most of the schools in the island. So, they are complete newcomers to the field. As a solution to this condition, youth and their parents have to be educated on the importance and the employment opportunities available in the ICT field.

In a few local universities, internal and external diploma courses, degree courses and post-graduate on ICT are being conducted.

Other than that, a large number of private sector educational institutions are also conducting such courses. International organizations connected with the ICT field such as the British Computer Society (BCS) are also conducting internationally accepted courses in Sri Lanka. There are opportunities to study overseas or in Sri Lankan affiliations of overseas educational institutions. Now, in engineering and accountancy professions, in the ICT profession also, facilities exist to study ICT to be a Chartered ICT Professional in Sri Lanka.

When an ICT professional is recruited to a recognized institution, the minimum qualification considered will be whether he or she has a Degree from a recognized institution. Because of this, if any one wants to be an ICT professional, he or she should select for his education, a State or private sector educational institution that will enable him or her to successfully complete at least a degree course.

If an individual does not have the required basic knowledge to follow a degree course, at least a diploma course that will prepare the foundation for a degree course should be followed. To become an ICT professional, an individual must have a clear aim, a genuine liking for ICT and dedication. The information and communication technology has a very broad subject field. The subject base of ICT broadens more and more every year. There are so many sections in ICT such as computer hardware, software, networking, communications, multimedia, graphics, animation, network security and data management.

A suitable section should be selected according the person’s wish and aptitude. Even though something can be done in this field by picking up some things haphazardly, those people could never become a Chartered ICT Professional. There are educational qualifications and practical training that should be methodically completed to become a Chartered ICT Professional. These activities have to be completed methodically, through nationally and internationally accepted educational institutions.

Many of the parents do not have any understanding of the ICT field. They are at all times involved in the exhausting struggle of life to maintain their families and their livelihoods. In most instances, they do not have time to look after their children properly. But, it should not be like that. Every parent should look after their children properly from the stage the child is enrolled in some educational institution to follow a specific course of education continuously till the stage the child successfully completes the course of education.

The responsibility of looking after their children without letting him or her and themselves being duped by spurious education institutions that operate with the intention of making a fast buck rests with the parents. The ICT field is not entirely without its bad side.

Students can surf the web without any aim for days, weeks and even months. The facebook website is not without its dangers. Computer games, pornographic web sites and getting addicted to web surfing can destroy not only the education, but also the whole future of the child.

Sri Lanka can never be the first in the world in motor car production, ship building or making airplanes. But, we can certainly become the worlds first in the ICT field. The necessary levels of intelligence are with our younger generation. What is needed is action with correct guidance, with a definite aim.