During the past decades, information technology has gained its utmost level of success all around the world. Sri Lanka is still struggling to cater to the needs of local and foreign entities. Many IT organisations are making an excellent effort to bring out IT solutions for business needs. Some are successful, while some fail to come up with long-term stable solutions.
When considering IT education and entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka, about ninety percent of the students who pass out of the universities opt to serve an employer other than starting their own business with their own ideas. Some end up making business deals for IT solutions with international companies, and some fail to grab employment opportunities in the area they studied.
Around ten percent of the students who select the path to be an IT employer or an entrepreneur also fail to cater to international business needs, and among them, only 10% of the students will be successful in their business.
To mitigate these kinds of issues, we need to get government parties in direct collaboration to set up rules and regulations for standards when someone starts a business in IT. It is better to work for an employer other than going for a company that will fail. If you invest in a failure, your investments will be lost. Currently, government bodies are reluctant to provide a proper guideline for these.
The reasons for frequent failures are the lack of knowledge on how they should address their customers and how to impress them with their capabilities and fail to protect technical assets they are having (employees), most importantly.
Most promisingly, almost in every case, lack of knowledge plays a significant role here. Either you, your son, your daughter or a relative of yours is an IT undergraduate or a student who passed out of the university still may not have a good understanding about what kind of a job they should select to get the maximum possible benefit of what they have learned in the university.
For example, if we take a student who has been raised in a village and having completed his or her degree and passed out with a class but still due to lack of contacts and lack of knowledge, he or she might end up joining a company which is underpaid or select a role that will not improve his or her capabilities.
The main reason for the unemployment of IT graduates is the lack of knowledge about the companies operating in Sri Lanka. Candidates have significantly less understanding of what stream they should select when it comes to their first job. There are many streams one can choose from when you have a general IT degree. Some end up working in a company on a low salary, and they never know that their skills are underestimated. In such cases, recruiters and business owners get the maximum benefit from them.
Many foreign IT organisations operate their HQs in Sri Lanka. For example, if we take Orion City, IT park, there are a few foreign companies in Sri Lanka. Some graduates get this benefit and try joining one of these companies and gain top salaries and development, which is better for them on the one hand.
By saying that, there are also drawbacks for employees when selecting this kind of workplace. One of the main reasons is that graduates will not get a chance to serve their motherland directly. I have met underpaid people a lot in my ten-year IT career.
A few years ago, when I was working for a company, I met people who had completed their degrees and did nonwhite collar jobs. I felt distraught when I talked with them and sympathised and asked, “Why do you want to work here like this?” The reply I got from them was that they do not have enough contacts and English knowledge.
These things should not happen in a developing country such as Sri Lanka. There should be a mechanism to make up the mindset of students who pass out of the university. About their value for themselves and the motherland.
If we could use all the technical assets how much money can we pump into our homeland? When we look at countries such as Singapore, which lagged behind Sri Lanka economically at one time, now uses technological assets to reach the pinnacle of success, making more tourists visit their countries.
One of the main reasons for the lack of knowledge assets in Sri Lanka is migration. People who pass out of the university and have completed three years experience migrate from Sri Lanka.
I think the main reason for this is poor social security and the poor quality of life in Sri Lanka. It is hard for us to find a one-stop solution for these all problems. Nevertheless, at least there are a few things we can do as adults living in Sri Lanka, when raising and educating our children.
One of the major obstacles we have here is that we do not get government support to set up a mechanism other than just going for a traditional internship which is at a low level. Most universities and colleges in Europe and North American countries indirectly practice this mechanism, and graduates can benefit from this opportunity. Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka, graduates never get a chance to go through this mechanism.When will we find a one-stop solution for all of these issues? That’s a rhetorical question. Thinking makes the difference in everything.
If we can inculcate in our children’s thinking, a positive attitude towards serving our motherland, and possibly if we can change the mindset of graduates who are pass out of the universities with a can-do attitude and make them understand their value, it is easier for us to start finding a solution for this burning issue. A degree holder generally can be considered as an uncut gem that needs to be cut and polished to have functioned at its best. It is our responsibility as adults to make those gems cut and polished.
If we can maintain this positive attitude throughout the Sri Lankan IT industry, it will grow and pump more profits to our motherland.
The writer is a Systems Engineer.