CSSL President calls for professional recognition for ICT workforce

The 32nd Annual General Meeting of CSSL was held on 26 January 2020and Damith Hettihewa, Managing Director of Nimbus Cloud Lanka Ltd., was elected as the President. 

“Sri Lanka has a direct ICT workforce exceeding 120,000 according to ICT industry workforce survey published in 2019 by Information and communication Technology Agency ( ICTA) and industry earns foreign exchange earnings to the tune of $ 1.2 billion. However our ICT practitioners do not have means of achieving Chartered ICT Professional status locally as the Act to incorporate Sri Lanka’s ICT professional body has been delayed by successive governments,” Hettihewa said in his inaugural speech upon his election.

CSSL has been voicing this industry need for more than a decade but it is unfortunate that it could not proceed to second reading stage in the Parliament due eternal delays and subsequent Parliament dissolutions.

In the UK, British Computer Society (BCS) has been mandated through Royal Charter issued in 1984 by Privy Council to grant Chartered Professional status within the ICT industry. Sri Lankan ICT professionals have to pay foreign professional bodies such as British Computer Society (BSC) or Australian Computer Society (ACS) to maintain chartered professional status. 

ICT professionals serving in armed forces are entitled for a professional allowance and these professionals do not have a means to receive professional allowance due to the absence of chartered professional status through a local professional body.

Lack of professional recognition is a major drawback to attract best talents to the local ICT industry. A/L students are reluctant to pursue the IT route at GCE Advanced Level as ICT qualifications in Sri Lanka does not offer prestigious professional status similar to medical, engineering or accountancy professions.

“Act to incorporate the Computer Society of Sri Lanka enabling it to grant Chartered IT Professional status to local ICT practitioners has already been vetted by the legal draftsman and ready for cabinet and parliamentary approvals. Successive CSSL councils have been pursuing this dire industry need but unfortunately successive governments have given less priority for recognising ICT profession in Sri Lanka. Government and ICT Industry are aggressively chasing $ 3 billion export target. This needs an estimated direct workforce of 300,000 ICT professionals. Hence enacting of the professional body mandated to offer chartered status for ICT professionals is imperative,” Hettihewa emphasised.

However, Hettihewa was optimistic in this regard and said that he sees a great opportunity for the ICT industry to realise its objectives as the Head of the state has decided to handle the subject of technology in order to fast track national development on the eve of the 4th Industrial Revolution. He believed that industry needs will get the necessary attention and solutions directly from the highest office of the government.

CSSL is a provisional signatory to the Seoul Accord, the international accreditation agreement for professional computing and information technology academic degrees, between the professional bodies in its signatory countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan through which CSSL brings international standards and recognition on ICT related degrees to Sri Lanka. 

“CSSL accredited local degree holders are recognised by professional bodies of the respective signatory countries of soul accord mentioned above. CSSL has fulfilled its obligations by meeting the necessary criteria to become a signatory of the Seoul Accord and made necessary investments to get international recognition for ICT degrees of local universities. Enacting CSSL will also expedite the process of achieving full signatory status of the Seoul Accord. It is unfortunate that CSSL has yet to fulfil its local obligation to the industry, but it has to depend on the government for the same,” Hettihewa said on the subject of professional recognition.

Hettihewa also spoke about the CSSL’s intention to initiate the  policy advocacy role during his tenure in order to country to leapfrog and adopt frontier  technologies such as AI, Data Science , Drones, Autonomous transportation, etc. fast under the ‘Contribute’ pillar of the CSSL 2021 Program.  

“The 4th Industrial Revolution too will create new wealthy nations similar to Europe, Americas and Japan which became rich nations as a result of three industrial revolutions respectively. If Sri Lanka to leverage this new opportunity to become wealthy, it needs to fast track policy formation to be ahead of its competitive countries to adopt and leverage frontier technologies very fast. CSSL having the cream of ICT professionals as its members can assist government to fast track this process,” said Hettihewa 

“As a result of farsighted policy formation in education and public health a long time ago, Sri Lanka fares well now in human development indexes such as Life Expectancy and Literacy and are on par with developed nations. However we are lagging far behind in digital indexes.  CSSL is in a position to extend expertise through its eminent members to help the government to improve Sri Lanka’s ranking in ICT Development Index, UNeGov Index, Doing Business Index etc. and we intended to deliver such offerings under the CSSL ‘Contribute’ pillar,” Hettihewa added.

CSSL, established in 1976, is the apex body of ICT professionals in the country. It has been playing a pioneering role in promoting Information Technology, standards, ethics and professionalism among those engaged in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and is the longest serving ICT body in the country. CSSL is a member of the South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC) and the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) which is the umbrella body of Computer Societies and ICT professional's bodies of all countries.