‘Future Careers’ in Jaffna attracts overwhelming crowds of keen youth

•  Held on Days 1 and 2 of the Jaffna IT Week

In an attempt to educate the budding youth of Sri Lanka about the myriad of opportunities available in Sri Lanka’s growing IT/BPM industry, the Jaffna IT Week – an industry initiative for inclusive growth and reconciliation – hosted the ‘Future Careers’ program on 3 and 4 December at the Vembadi Girls’ High School in Jaffna. Held on the first two days of the Jaffna IT Week, it was organised by SLASSCOM, ICTA and the Ministry of Education, and attracted over 2,500 schoolchildren from schools across the Jaffna Peninsula. It was one of the biggest events of its kind to be held in the north. Targeting schoolchildren in the north, the ‘Future Careers’ program functioned as a career guidance session to educate the youth about the IT/BPM industry both globally and locally, and open their eyes to the wide range of possibilities and job opportunities available within the sector. It is a highly successful program that has been carried out in various parts of the country over the years. The program in Jaffna received tremendous feedback from all the attendees, which included important industry stakeholders from both the private and public sector, schoolchildren, teachers and parents, all of whom agreed that the initiative was a pivotal one for the students. It also included a teacher training program a week prior to the ‘Future Careers’ event itself, from which the teachers of the participating schools benefited greatly. Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM industry is now the fifth largest exporter in the country and keeps growing exponentially year-on-year. Programs such as ‘Future Careers’ encourages students to pursue IT degrees once they leave school and further deepen the talent pool available to the industry in years to come. The fair in Jaffna consisted of two main sessions – the first, a general introduction to the IT/BPM industry, followed by counselling sessions, where students were divided into groups of around 10 and assigned to a counsellor (from private sector companies), who provided them with more in-depth information and clarified the students’ issues. “As we know, there are traditional jobs like engineers, doctors, lawyers and so on. IT is becoming a new trend; a new career path is emerging. My take is this: If you don’t know IT, and if you don’t learn it within the next 2-5 years, you can’t ever emerge,” stated Sampath Information Technology Solutions Ltd. General Manager S. Muralidharan when commenting on the program. “I think that there should be continuity for this kind of awareness session. I think this is excellent and I think sessions like this should be done long term and the progress should be monitored: Otherwise there’s no point coming here, spending our time without seeing how well this is working out.” The ‘Jaffna IT Week’, held from 3 to 6 December 2014, was an IT industry initiative for inclusive growth and reconciliation, driven by SLASSCOM, and supported by the Export Development Board (EDB), Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), Ministry of Education (MOE), University of Jaffna (UOJ) and the Yarl IT Hub, with NDB as Official Bank and Mobitel as Exclusive Mobile Communication Partner. Over four days, the Jaffna IT Week featured key Government stakeholders, Sri Lanka’s top IT industry thought leaders and tech entrepreneurs. It was a significant event to be hosted in the Jaffna Peninsula, not only for the promotion of IT in Jaffna but also in terms of bridging the digital divide and bringing about reconciliation. For more information, please visit www.jaffnaitweek.com and for latest updates, visit www.facebook.com/JaffnaITWeek.