ICTA initiated IT-BPO career guidance at INFOTEL a huge success

The ICTA-initiated IT-BPO career guidance workshop held on the Students’ Day at INFOTEL 2010 proved a huge success.

More than 6000 students from grade 9 upwards from the Colombo and Gampaha Districts participated in the one-day IT-BPO career guidance counseling and seminar workshop held on 4 October at BMICH (Sirimavo Bandaranaike Convention Centre) Colombo.

All evinced keen interest in attending one of the eight sessions each consisting of a one hour seminar followed by personalised counseling on careers in IT-BPO, while students from grade 12 and 13 showed marked enthusiasm.

The sessions were held in Sinhala, Tamil and English with the seminars addressed by IT BPO Industry experts followed by tailor-made IT-BPO career guidance by about 100 ICTA trained industry volunteers and Ministry of Education counselors.

Among visitors to this programme conducted on the last of the four-day (1-4 Oct) INFOTEL 2010 Expo were school leavers and university students considering the IT-BPO careers as more prestigious and lucrative than those traditionally so deemed.

The IT BPO industry has a target of achieving USD 1 billion in export revenue by 2015. The industry requires to double the workforce to achieve this target.

The accomplishment of these numbers is highly dependent on the awareness created among the youth in Sri Lanka on the opportunities being created in this lucrative industry. In meeting this requirement the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the ICT Industry has been organising IT BPO Career Guidance Fairs island-wide.

The IT-BPO workshop held on 4th instant in coincidence with INFOTEL 2010 was the 9th of such IT- BPO Career Guidance events. ICTA sources said that these IT-BPO workshops had touched the lives of more than 28,000 students.

Emphasising the value of student awareness about careers in the ICT industry, ICTA Private Sector Development Programme Head Fayaz Hudah said “ The ICT Agency initiated this programme with the objective of creating ICT Industry career awareness within school children in order to allow them to gain access to better careers and thereby a better future”.

For further information on IT-BPO career fairs please visit www.futureisit.lk.