“Sri Lanka needs better branding”: HCLTech Global Head of EdTech Srimathi Shivashankar

HCLTech Global Head of EdTech Srimathi Shivashankar

• Says, the HCL Tech Career Shaper aims to focus on job readiness and technology learning through collaboration with Pathfinder to Tech Institute
• Predicts Sri Lanka has the potential to become a regional ICT hub due to favourable Government policies, etc.
• Stresses the Govt.’s digitisation is crucial and it is important for Government officials to undergo IT skilling first
• Says IT sector can support economic growth by increasing productivity
• Emphasises AI will create more jobs rather than replace them 

By Shanika Sriyananda

Positioning Sri Lanka for the brighter things in terms of talent, aspirations of the young generation, collective wisdom and also various other things that are available in the country, today is important, HCLTech Global Head of EdTech Srimathi Shivashankar said.

“What is the brand of Sri Lanka, today or what should Sri Lanka associate with?” she asked stating that if someone wants to associate India with, they will say very stable democracy, highly qualified talent and digitalisation.  

MMBL-Pathfinder Group has entered into a strategic partnership with HCLTech, a leading global technology company, to introduce innovative IT training programs in Sri Lanka. This collaboration is set to be a game-changer, with the newly established Pathfinder EdTech Institute at its core, aimed at creating a skilled workforce ready for the digital age. 

Shivashankar, who was in Sri Lanka asking to think about how to brand Sri Lanka in the market, told the Daily FT in an interview that Sri Lanka needs to better brand itself, positioning the country in terms of talent, innovation, and research to attract foreign investment.

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

Q: How do you see Sri Lanka’s potential to become a promising nation for ICT, in which the Government has ambitious plans to embark from 2025?

 One of the interesting data points in Sri Lanka is the average age of the workforce, which is around 26 years. Sri Lanka is a young nation. It has a lot of young talent compared to many other countries of the same stature or anywhere else in Asia or Europe. I think from the overall talent who are in schools or coming out of colleges, including graduates, the numbers are very strong. Therefore, I think the nation has every reason to capitalise or leverage the young population or those who are already employed and looking to get repurposed from technology, there’s a great potential.

Secondly, our own experience, where we found that the younger generation is very aspiring. They want to achieve and to be global citizens. I think that we can capture that momentum as well. 

We are going from school to corporate, which is an important move. What is interesting about EdTech Pathfinder Institute is that they are also going to create infrastructure for candidates to come and learn. We are fully aware that not everyone will have the right computers, technology and bandwidth to study and most importantly the environment to study. For example, there are a lot of women who want to switch today, they are aspiring to move up and they need the learning environment to continue their studies. I call them second careers. I think through this collaboration, our vision is also to see how many women in Sri Lanka want to upskill themselves using IT learning

Q: What is the vision of HCLTech for Sri Lanka?

It is a collaboration with the Pathfinder EduTech Institute and is basically to look at how we can facilitate because we are a catalyst for change and predominantly enabling and equipping the talent on their path to learn technology. Let us take for example colleges. The education is quite good in Sri Lanka. What is needed is the last mile job readiness. Whether it is for those who are coming from engineering or schools to become job ready. Therefore, we will focus largely on project based internships for them.

We also have arts, commerce and science students who also need to learn technology so that they can go into global careers.

Then there are school students, who have gaps in years of studies. They also can get jobs so they can earn and learn right. They also can enrol into some kind of an online graduation program later once they start liking their jobs. I think from the education perspective, these are the three cohorts. 

Meanwhile, the corporates are looking for a good partner to upskill and cross skill, which is the banking industry, where many people who have been in the banking industry so long at some point, want to absorb to learn technology and start moving up their career ladder. Putting up skilling and cross skilling into technology are something we are looking for. 

HCLTech is a tech company into tech coaching. Many companies in Sri Lanka and also globally are looking for tech coaching because middle management requires significant coaching, today, to stay productive. Therefore, the HCLTech will use its experience to coach the middle management to make them productive.

Q: Can this booming industry turn the country into a regional ICT hub while India already has a well established market for ICT?

I think the Sri Lankan Government itself has a lot of policies to attract foreign companies to come and set up its industry here. I see organisations like SLASSCOM working with NASSCOM in India to provide that bridge between industry and the Government in policy making and providing infrastructure for ICT to grow.

HCLTech is a career shaper as our platform, which is already in Sri Lanka to look at how we can build the talent for the jobs in this country. I think the Government to a large extent, the country has an ecosystem and talent which is aspiring to become ICT workers.

In the last 10 years, there has been a significant shift but what is important now is to accelerate because the technology is going through a lot of transformation with AI coming in and it is going to change the way we work. If Sri Lanka can learn it early on, then the outcomes will be significantly faster than missing out on the race. Any global client, let’s look at the G 2000 companies, including at HCLTech, we always look for an alternate place to grow as we do not want to have business focused only in one country.

We want our talent to be diverse because diversity brings a lot of strength in terms of innovation, in terms of the culture, in terms of new ideas that we can take to the customers.

Diversity is one of the focuses in most of the large organisations. We always look for different countries where the talent is and we move. Therefore, nothing stops any company from moving into a location where there is talent. This is one reason why HCLTech came to Sri Lanka and we knew that there is talent in Sri Lanka.

Q: Why did HCLTech partner with MMBL-Pathfinder to develop the ICT field in the country?

We found that the Pathfinder is well experienced in terms of understanding what industries need today. They connect their experience, the collective wisdom that we find in the Pathfinder team. They come from very diverse backgrounds, but very rich experience in different segments, whether it is from the corporate segment to public services to the Government sector to education sector. I think the leadership team has a very good understanding of what is needed. 

HCLTech has a good platform, programs and we have everything and especially we know what industry needs. What we need here is a ground intelligence and an outreach partner and the best knowledge partner that we can grow the market. HCLTech is the knowledge partner here and Pathfinder is our outreach and marketing partner. 

Q: How do you comment about the new initiative of establishing the Pathfinder EdTech Institute to develop a skilled workforce?

We are going from school to corporate, which is an important move. What is interesting about EdTech Pathfinder Institute is that they are also going to create infrastructure for candidates to come and learn. We are fully aware that not everyone will have the right computers, technology and bandwidth to study and most importantly the environment to study. 

For example, there are a lot of women who want to switch today, they are aspiring to move up and they need the learning environment to continue their studies. I call them second careers. 

I think through this collaboration, our vision is also to see how many women in Sri Lanka want to upskill themselves using IT learning.

Q: How important is it for the Government to accelerate its process for digitisation?

In countries, which the HCLTech has collaborations, they are asking the State officials first to go through the IT skilling. In fact, we do AI, cybersecurity, and data analytics. That is because the Government officials understand why they have to move into a digitised world and what they need to do to bring digital transformation and then the digital transformation can be accelerated much faster.

If the Sri Lanka Government says that they have very ambitious plans to go for a huge digital transformation or digitalisation process then it is good for the Government officials to get started soon. Other countries, which are in the similar early adaptation stage in digitalisation are doing it first with their officials. It’s important also for the bureaucrats to learn at the early adoption stage. From what I have heard that the Sri Lankan Government is to put in the right support systems and policies for growth. Without talent upskilling you cannot implement policies. Policies can help you with capacity, but talent development is needed to build capability.

HCLTech is a career shaper as our platform, which is already in Sri Lanka to look at how we can build the talent for the jobs in this country. I think the Government to a large extent, the country has an ecosystem and talent which is aspiring to become ICT workers. In the last 10 years, there has been a significant shift but what is important now is to accelerate because the technology is going through a lot of transformation with AI coming in and it is going to change the way we work. If Sri Lanka can learn it early on, then the outcomes will be significantly faster than missing out on the race

Q: How can Sri Lanka develop or enhance its ICT sector to support economic growth? 

 Most of the IT services today, as you said internally if the upskilling can actually bring more productivity in industries, then business becomes more productive as there are better margins. According to research findings, technology obviously brings business transformation from operations efficiency and productivity of talent.

However, any country where you see exports are moving, it is largely from services and it can be a generic-services or it can be a high end tech based service. I think that’s where IT service exports can bring a huge change and can have a significant impact on the economy. 

If the companies and talent are prepared for that incremental journey in tech-based services for exports, then you’ll find that there will be a quick shift in the economy as well.

Q: While many countries in the Asian region are competitive to attract investments, what more does Sri Lanka have to do to encourage foreign investments in ICT to the country?

I will answer this through my experience and have spoken about this at the Board of Investments, Chamber of Commerce and to the media. Some countries brand themselves well. I think Sri Lanka can also brand itself better. Positioning Sri Lanka for the brighter things in terms of talent, aspirations of the young generation, collective wisdom and also various other things that are available in the country today. What is the brand of Sri Lanka, today or what should Sri Lanka associate with? If someone wants to associate India with, they will say very stable democracy, highly qualified talent and digitalisation. Therefore, what do you want to be associated with? It is always a question.

We do marketing, branding of products, but every country also needs to stand for something positioning itself. I think that would be important because even large MNCs are looking to come and invest here, would want to know what it is that they’re pitching and it is not just about landscape talent but what do you stand for as an elevator pitch, right?

Think about how to brand Sri Lanka in the market. But under EduTech, if we can grow more talent, maybe you can say brand Sri Lanka’s talent. 

Q: What are the challenges that Sri Lanka will face in getting global tech companies to commence operations in the country?

Here, I’ll talk about opportunities. The more you have talent, anyone can come and start IT operations here as IT does not need infrastructure. The product companies go where the talent is. The companies in Europe or Australia are taking candidates from Sri Lanka. In the IT field, they can work from anywhere and with digitisation, we have more virtual teams. Today’s jobs are networks of networks. If talent is in Vietnam, we go there. 

If you have to attract the right kind of investments beyond manufacturing, you have to position the right competitive talent, innovation and research.

Q: Will AI and other advanced emerging technologies be a threat to IT workers in countries like Sri Lanka?

AI will create more jobs. I am one of the first-generation computer science engineers. Those days when we all went into computing, people said due to computers people will lose their jobs but later we found that computers created more jobs. This is like how they found calculators. People thought it will be a threat to accountants but what happened was there are more accountants in the world after the introduction of calculators and Excel Sheets. 

I see technology as your assistant and it can not replace you. Similarly, AI is also your assistant, who makes you more efficient and predictive. 

It’s a good opportunity and that is why it is called artificial intelligence but we still have human intelligence. Therefore it is going to create more jobs for people. 

The corporates are looking for a good partner to upskill and cross skill, which is the banking industry, where many people who have been in the banking industry so long at some point, want to absorb to learn technology and start moving up their career ladder. Putting up skilling and cross skilling into technology are something we are looking for

Q: How confident are you that those who are trained by the HCLTech will have promising career opportunities in the future?

Yes, the HCLTech is confident in the promising career opportunities for those trained by us. We have been working in different countries and the outcome has always been good because obviously the HCLTech certificate does help somebody to get a job. I believe that we are going to get started within six months. As part of these partnerships, we are very responsible on how we change the content, bring better training, provide better coaching, and how we better align to the local industry needs.