Virtusa extends Digital Discoverer Program across multiple local universities

Wednesday, 31 March 2021 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Virtusa Campus Reach Team with SLIIT Faculty members

SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass.: Virtusa Corporation, a global provider of digital strategy, digital engineering, and IT services and solutions that help clients change and disrupt markets through innovation engineering, extended its Digital Discoverer Program (DDP) to more Sri Lankan universities following its successful conclusion at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), University of Colombo and University of Jaffna.

“As the single largest employer of fresh graduates and interns in Sri Lanka, we identified a growing skill gap in workforce newcomers due to rapidly evolving industry requirements,” said Virtusa – Sri Lanka and Asia Pacific Head of Training and Development and Campus Reach Sampath Thrimavithana. “That initial leap from graduate to your first job is crucial for professional success, and the Digital Discoverer Program maps current industry anticipation to relevant technical and soft skills, successfully addressing this long-ignored university-to-workplace skill gap.”

With additional benefits such as mentorship from Virtusa experts and increased potential for employability, the program consists of 12 sessions categorised under four verticals; fundamental programming frameworks, user interfaces and analytical knowledge are brought up-to-date under Core Skills, while intelligent technologies and platforms such as Salesforce and AWS are covered under Emerging Skills. Project Management Skills explore new methodologies and tools, while non-technical people interactions are discussed under Soft Skills. A number of mixed assessments will mark the successful completion of the program.

DDP was first piloted as a virtual program in August 2020 at SLIIT, closely followed by rollouts at the National School of Business Management (NSBM) and the University of Jaffna in November 2020. The University of Colombo followed soon after, introducing the program to students in December 2020. General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University was next in January 2021, joining the growing list of higher educational institutions promoting the development of competences for employability.

DDP was most recently launched in March 2021 at the University of Ruhuna and Trincomalee Campus of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka, with an April 2021 launch scheduled at the Vavuniya Campus of the University of Jaffna. The program has thus far reached over 1,000 university students across the island, elevating the IT talent pool capabilities of Sri Lanka.

DDP was ideated and implemented under Virtusa’s Campus Reach initiative – an industry-academia partnership designed to support the next generation of IT professionals to be workforce ready and contribute to the IT industry’s growth. Campus Reach carries out IT curriculum development, internships and mentoring among partner universities and institutes of higher education, directly improving skill capacities of potential employees.

From left: Virtusa Associate Consultant – HR Suweda Rajaratnam, Virtusa Lead Consultant – HR Thilan Perera, Virtusa Senior Architect – Technology Dhanusha Mahatantila, SLIIT MD/CEO Prof. Lalith Gamage, Virtusa Associate Director – HR Sampath Thrimavithana and Virtusa Associate Executive – HR Aniston Leo