APIIT promises 100 top IT graduates to Virtusa annually 

APIIT Chairman Bandula Egodage and Virtusa Senior Director Sampath Thrimavithana at the MoU signing ceremony

One of the top global education entities in Sri Lanka, The Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Virtusa, a top global IT company, and a leader in Sri Lanka which supports companies driving digital transformation innovation globally. 

The MoU encompasses training and development, partnering the entity for faculty visits, priority picking of talent, soft skill training and advising on new curriculum development. 

“One of the key promises agreed was that APIIT develops and provides 100 top quality IT graduates for Virtusa to interview and select, based on the different requirements of the organisation,” said APIIT Chairman Bandula Egodage.  

“By servicing the private sector, we will be serving the country so that the IT/BPO industry can bring in five billion dollars to Sri Lanka in the near future. We are currently are at just a billion dollars in export revenue,” he added. 

One of the key features of the MoU was the launch of the ‘Digital Discovery Program’ a signature programme of Virtusa, aimed at enriching practical skills and imparting an industry-relevant course curriculum to the IT students of APIIT, especially the software engineering students as APPIT is known for its top-quality IT students with strong soft skills spanning a 22-year heritage under the Staffordshire University, UK.

The MoU provides for Virtusa’s representatives to work with APIIT’s students and provide them exposure to the current industrial needs and requirements. The end game is that top 100 graduates can be developed to the top private sector organisations. Some can be even seconded to overseas entities provided they are qualified at a higher level like a Master’s programme for which APIIT has built a name in the market. 

The signature brand ‘Digital Discover Program’ consists of many industrial sessions enriched with core and emerging technical skills together with project management and professional skills. It will run on a 12-week module side by side to the academic studies that APIIT students will do in the computer school. These skills will bring an advantage where undergraduates can become industry-ready while also enhancing the probability of employment.

Speaking at the event, APIIT Director Dr. Rohantha Athukorala said that the role of educational institutes is to produce talent that will help solve the problems that the private sector is up against. “We will train students with the support of organisations like Virtusa so that we can provide 100 top IT graduates to organisations initially and then we will scale up. 

“This in turn will ensure that an organisation like Virtusa meets the promise that caters to requirements thousands of miles away. In today’s world many companies are driving digitalisation where the backend can be done efficiently and with 100% accuracy in countries like Sri Lanka and India while the front end is in Europe, US and Australia. We are committed to play this role,” he said.  Virtusa Head of Human Resources Sri Lanka Sampath Thrimavithana said: “As one of the largest employers of graduates in the country we continuously look for means to improve the employability of undergraduates. 

“This alliance is a great step forward in reinforcing Sri Lanka’s future by building on one of the most valuable skills any student could pursue. With unique insights into industry requirements and a curriculum that is custom-made to ensure success, this union will help address the required skills while uplifting our youth to meet international standards.”