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Monday, 23 June 2014 00:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The system brings together the Sri Lankan corporate information sector and universities or higher educational institutes, supporting them to partner project ideas for universities at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels and offer studies with mentorship from industry experts.
The system also serves as forum for internship collaborations, discussions around technology and further inserts value as a job portal.
SLASSCOM Vice Chairman Jayantha De Silva told the Daily FT that the skills required by today’s tech workforce is constantly changing and to make the workforce future proof, then they need to acquire additional skills. “So the ability must improve to mesh software with hardware to exploit the internet or things and user experience design skills among many others,” he said.
This method is base on state-of-the-art social computing concepts to keep everyone connected together. Academia, undergraduate and post graduate communities can achieve the mutual benefits of the system, while helping in the journey of transforming Sri Lanka into a global leader in the information technology sector.
‘DirectLink’ serves as a catalyst where the distance between the industry and academia is literally just a click away.
De Silva added: “Our hope is that this portal becomes the one-stop-shop when it comes to collaboration between IT and knowledge services industry where research proposals that interest the industry and academia or professional bodies locally and internationally would go from conceptualisation to reality. Also we hope that valuable mentorship relationships can be formed and sustained between various stakeholders via this unique web portal.”
In 2013 Sri Lankan IT and knowledge services industry recorded an estimated $ 720 million in export revenue. The industry is targeting $ 1 billion by 2016. Its ambitious target under Vision 2022, SLASSCOM’s policy framework, is to reach $ 5 billion in revenue, creating 200,000 direct jobs and 1,000 start ups by 2022 for which it is seeking the active partnership of all stakeholders, including academia.
The ‘Campus DirectLink’ system has been designed on behalf of SLASSCOM by one of its member companies, IFS R and D International Ltd.
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
