ICT Industry Skills Council appoints new Board of Directors

Ministry of Education Secretary Senior Prof. Kapila Perera

ICTISC Chairman Chinthaka Wijewickrema

Vice Chairman Indika de Zoysa

• Transformational roadmap created to ensure 2020-2030
• The Decade of Skills Development Goals to be achieved

Treasurer Thilina Panduka

General Secretary Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe

ICT Industry Skills Council concluded its Annual General Meeting (AGM) recently with the participation of Senior Professor Kapila Perera, Secretary to the Ministry of Education as the keynote speaker/Chief Guest. Due to prevailing health crisis, the AGM was held digitally.

A leading entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the ICT sphere, Sala Enterprises Managing Director Chinthaka Wijewickrema was re-elected as the Chairman of the ICT Industry Skills Council whilst Indika de Zoysa – Vice President of Huawei Sri Lanka and a Global Business Leader with expertise in Strategic Planning, Sales and Marketing, Business Development, appointed as the Vice Chairman. Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training Director IT Thilina Panduka, an eminent IT professional and a Lecturer with Public and Private IT sector experience (Treasurer) and Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the telecommunications industry (General Secretary), were appointed as other office bearers.

Addressing the audience, Senior Professor Kapila Perera mentioned, “The world is moving towards a knowledge and information era. ICT has become an integral part of everyday life. ICT for education has become the need of the hour under the current situation. The education sector has realised the importance of ICT education from grade one. The ministry of education understands the gravity of both ICT education and ICT for education. ICT education empowers ICT for education not only because students must know how to access internet, digital devises etc., but also ICT skills have become compulsory skills in all sectors and professions in the world. Therefore, it has become a life skill in the modern world.” 

ICTISC Chairman Chinthaka Wijewickrema said, “In view of the importance of digital skills in this era, it is not surprising that the development and strengthening of such skills is an important objective in the government. Many developing countries have already started driving global innovation in technologies and business models in ICT. As a result, there is a huge demand for new knowledge and skills. Sri Lanka is still lagging behind the skills required in the twenty first century. Efforts to match current skills with the new skills required in the modern world, as a result of the rapid technological developments, have become a priority. Therefore, the Government’s focus on skills development is a need of the hour,” said Wijewickrema.

The following members got re-elected as Directors of the board of management of the ICTISC. Shanta Rajapaksha Yapa (Avonet Ltd.) , Abbas Kamrudeen (Debug Computers), Sachith Perera (99X), Sampath Thrimavithana (Vitusa Corporation), Upendra Pieris (Orel Corporation), Alanzo Doll (BCS, Sri Lanka Section) Prabhath Samindra (CSSL), Prasad Hettiarachchi (Agaya Holdings), T. Baheerathan (DMS Software), Wasantha Weerakoon (Sanje Lanka), T. Suresh (Zillion Holding), Bani Chandrasena (SLASSCOM), Manoj Ganepola (TVEC), Samira Jayawardena (ICTA), Vilroy de Silva (NAITA), S.M. Dayaratne (Ministry of Finance), Shouqi Omar (IFS).

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared 2021-2030 the Decade of Skills Development in Sri Lanka. The historic move is expected to herald a transformational phase of educational reform and skills development for the nation in line with the Government’s national policy framework, ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’. 

Consisting of industry leaders and stakeholders, the ICT Industry Skills Council is an ICT industry driven organisation supported by the Government of Sri Lanka. The ICT skills council aims to prepare Sri Lankan workforce for Digital Sri Lanka and make Sri Lanka an ICT skill hub for the global ICT industry. ICTISC is aligned with the Government vision of reaching a $ 3 billion exports revenue from the IT-BPM sector and creating 300,000 skilled labour force by 2025. 

ICTISC also believes that, workforces in different sectors and general citizens need a broad set of ICT skills to grab the opportunities created by the digitalisation. Therefore, ICTISC works on improved ICT skills in cross sectors and among general citizens to boost the economic development of the country. Therefore, ICTISC functions as the platform between the IT industry and the education sector of the country for helping the Government to reform the ICT education in the 

country.