SLASSCOM commends President’s declaration of Skills Development Decade

• Aimed at transforming the economy and reducing unemployment to 10%

SLASSCOM, the knowledge and innovation industry chamber, welcomed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s declaration of 2021-2030 as the Decade of Skills Development in Sri Lanka.

SLASSCOM Chairman  Channa Manoharan

“It’s important that youth have a future relevant skill and this initiative will upskil them and prepare them to be global citizens armed with skills of the future. At SLASSCOM we are committed to supporting young people. Our programs such as TechKids, BRIDGE, Boot Camp and the LEAD program focuses on developing the skills needed by the industry from school through to university,” said SLASSCOM Chairman Channa Manoharan.

SLASSCOM already works collaboratively with the government, academia (State and non-State) and industry to transform the general education, higher education and professional and vocational education sectors in order to build a ready pool of talent required to position Sri Lanka as the epicentre for the knowledge and innovation industry in Asia by creating a future-fit population who will drive the agenda of the country articulated through the National Export Strategy of Sri Lanka 2018-2022 (NES). 

In collaboration with all stakeholders, SLASSCOM, with a view to continually scale up the skills and capacity of talent, facilitates tailor made programs to develop skills required from a global perspective, based on surveys and research. The insights from these surveys on employability skills and skills of the future are also shared with industry and other stakeholders enabling the talent to be relevant and future-fit global technocrats. 

With funding support from the Norwegian Government, SLASSCOM’s TechKids initiative introduces coding skills at school level. TechKids has nearly 1,500 students through classroom style coding workshops in schools and SLASSCOM member companies, weekly online coding workshops and through its newly-launched online learning platform (www.techkids.lk). SLASSCOM has also partnered with the Ministry of Higher Education to run a pilot program. 

SLASSCOM FutureCareers Bridge initiative and coding BOOT camp are aimed at tertiary education, enabling students to secure internships on successful completion and thereafter pursue a work-study approach to obtaining a degree.

Future Skills survey and roundtable initiatives are aimed at developing skills and capacity in technologies such as AI, ML, Data Science, IoT, Drones and Robotics, RPA, etc. to enable our Knowledge and Innovation companies to offer products and high value services.

The COVID-19 pandemic is shaping a new normal for companies as well as the higher education sector. In response to the need of the hour SLASSCOM in partnership with academia, and industry collaborated on shaping the way forward. 

One such initiative is LEAD program developed together with AIESEC Sri Lanka, where the State and non-State universities will launch an online program to develop professional and leadership skills of fresh graduates from these universities. Graduate students will be coached and mentored by industry practitioners, academia, and AIESEC volunteers over a period of six to 12 weeks on task-based assignments to better equip them for internships and employment.

SLASSCOM looks forward to continuing its partnership with the Government and other stakeholders on developing the skills needed for the digital age.