Changing up the game

At a time when graduate unemployment is hitting headlines, it is worth looking at opportunities that exist in the job market, and what can be done to direct more people to find gainful employment. A recent survey released by Sri Lanka’s ICT Agency has found that there is a 12,000 worker shortfall in the IT industry, but this is also because companies are more focused on quality and seek degree level candidates. So what can be done to get more youth to fill this gap?  

The 2018 study shows pure ICT companies are now the dominant employer in the sector, where the basic entry requirement had grown to degree level in a change from a survey in 2013. Based on projected demand for 2019, there was a 12,000 person shortfall or ICT graduates compared to less than 500 in the last survey in 2013, with the sector growing fast due to globalisation.

The main conclusion of the survey is that the ICT workforce in Sri Lanka is undergoing deep structural changes, at a time when the global ICT sector experiences a period of transition. The influence of the global and domestic transformations is visibly manifested in drastic changes taking place in composition of the ICT workforce in the country.

The relative shares of major employer categories in the ICT workforce has changed significantly in favour of ICT companies, which came to occupy nearly a two thirds of the total workforce. The survey found a demand of 21,216 graduates by the ICT sector for 2019, while the supply was 9,076. The gap was higher than in 2013, with the industry rapidly growing and pure ICT companies making up the biggest employer.

This shows the demand-supply gap for the ICT workforce in the country is widening rather than closing. Considering the fact that the total supply also includes postgraduate trainees, many of whom may already be counted as a part of the existing workforce, this margin tends to increase further.

The survey said the entry level of workers for pure ICT companies was now a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, and gap between demand and supply also relates to quality. Despite a large output of trainees from a variety of courses offered by training organisations, the quality of a significant share of them remains below the level of expectations of employers. This means that there has to be more engagement from companies to convey to prospective employees about what skills they really need to arm themselves with to get jobs. 

The other issue is that while universities should revise their curricula in consultation with the industry, a bigger task lies ahead for tertiary and vocational education institutes in both State and private sector offering courses below degree level. The survey recommends raising the skills of trainees at NVQ qualification levels of L5 and L6 (i.e. Diplomas and Higher Diplomas), and upgrading them into the level of L7, which is equivalent to graduate level, should be given priority. 

This needs to be connected with providing soft skills, not just in terms of learning English, but creating employees with communications skills in general, team work, creative thinking skills, and professional ethics. These qualities outweigh “good English” by a mile and could actually be used to create a more equitable playing field among prospective employees. Clearly this is one example of how Sri Lanka can employ its educated youth, without resorting to buying votes via dishing out public sector jobs at election time.