S.Thanigaseelan, Asst Director NHRDC, Ministry Of National Policies & Economic Affairs

Skills Gap of Sri Lanka Becoming an IT-BPO Destination

National ICT Network Session- Colombo

22nd September 2016 at the

National Chamber

Auditorium

Opportunities & Trend- Sri Lanka

• It is expected that IT/BPO industry will contribute over US$ 5 Billion by 2020.

• It is also expected that a 1,000 startups in the technology sector will be created by 2020.

• Sri Lanka annually produces around 7,500 graduates in ICT and related disciplines.

• An optimistic estimate of the man-power requirements for this development puts the requirements at around 25,000 qualified persons per year conserving the total man-power requirements of IT industry at around 200,000 persons by 2022 to generate US$ 5 billion.

• ICT industry is estimated that around 80,000 persons are employed in the industry that generates around US$ 800 million

The predicted shortage skills in developed countries.

Country Shortage YearUnited States 190,000 2018

Canada 182,000 2019

UK and Europe 850,000 2018

Source: Report published by Mckensey states that by 2018

ICT SECTOR TRAINING PROGRAMS AT NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS• The ICT sector stands among

other sectors at the 2nd place with 704 training programs throughout the country.

• Information Communication and Multimedia Technology occupies 11.5% of the training space in the island.

• The ICT sector has 122 unique courses conducted by nine training institutions.

IC & MT SECTORUNIQUE TRAINING COURSES

INSTITUTE UNIQUE COURSES

National Youth Service Council 40National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority

24

Vocational Training Authority 21National Institute of Business Management

19

Department of Technical Education & Training

6

Sri Lankan Port Authority 6University of Vocational Technology 3Sri Lanka Institute of Printing 2National Institute of Fisheries & Nautical Engineering

1

Grand Total 122

Source: IC & MT SECTOR TRAINING, TOWARDS A FUTURE READY WORKFORCE An analysis of training provided with insights 2012-2014

Employed opportunities by discipline

SOURCE: http://www.tissl.lk/Presentation1.ppsx

• Industry components• Software services and products• Business process outsourcing

• IT enabled services• Hardware

• The story so far• Rapid growth• Upgrading• Diversification• Positive spillovers

IT-BPO Industry

9

IT-BPO Industry (contd.)• Spillovers• From software to BPO and ITES• Into higher education• National reputation • Attitudes, goals and expectations• Other sectors, e.g., manufacturing• Individuals

10

Rural Development• Is IT a luxury?• Not any more• Rapid, long distance communications a necessity• Of course nutrition, health, sanitation, housing, basic

education are higher priorities

• IT can play an enabling role• Reduce transaction costs• Reduce production costs• Improve allocative efficiency

11

E-Commerce• B2B and B2C

• B2B is still very limited, restricted to larger firms

• B2C is large in absolute terms, but a very restricted slice of the economy• Upper income, urban consumers• Travel is by far the biggest segment• Attention economy – time vs. money

12

E-Commerce (contd.)• Infrastructure challenges• Payments systems• Logistics• Broadband

• Market access• Small urban enterprises• Rural handicrafts producers

• Information on opportunities

13

Manufacturing• Manufacturing sector an underachiever

• National Manufacturing Policy wants to change that

• Empirical evidence suggests that IT investments in manufacturing have a high payoff• But actual IT investment is limited – Why?

• Management quality• Lack of appropriate products for domestic market• Lack of awareness or knowledge• Infrastructure constraints• Coordination failures• Financial constraints

14

Manufacturing (contd.)• Where should government policy focus?• Business environment for all manufacturing

• Labor laws• Company law• Financial sector reform

• IT-specific policies• Tax treatment• Infrastructure• Knowledge dissemination• Standard setting by government

15

E-Governance• General problems of governance• Corruption• Poor implementation

• Two complementary areas for IT as a tool for improving governance• Internal systems and processes• Citizen-government interfaces

• If one has to prioritize, probably the back-end is more necessary

16

E-Governance (contd.)• What can IT achieve?• Transparency and monitoring, leading to more

accountability• Reducing transaction costs• Improving responsiveness (another aspect of

accountability)• Better targeting

• Indian government policy• Ambitious targets for national e-governance• Some piecemeal improvements

Challenges• Government expect to create 1 million employment

opportunities by 2020 in such industries.• Man-power requirement poses a major challenge to the

government and the private sector involved in post-secondary education.

• While graduates from IT has a lack of skills, especially in Communication, Team Work, Leadership, Presentation and lack of awareness in the Work Culture and work ethics have been identified in several studies.

Manpower supply Requirement Gap

7,500 25,000 17,500

Challenges…..•  Lack of work culture, work ethics and softs

kills among the job seekers• Shortage of graduates and diploma holders

with required attitudes and skills• Inability of the students to pursue graduate

education due to financial problems• Unavailability of a program to attract O/L and

A/L dropouts to the IT/BPO industry• Absence of a concerted national program to

build the skills to be in shortage within the next few years

The Way Forwarded

• Provide government support for internship programs. Internship program provide on-the-job training that improves the job-readiness of students while they are following their studied.

• Give entrepreneurial ideas to students at the school level.

• A strategy is also needed to capture those who drop out of the school system after the O/Ls and A/L. This initiative will require coordination among several government organizations as well as the private sector and IT related industry associations.

• Produce job oriented people who are equipped with skills needed for jobs.

• Invest in developing soft skills and English skills for a future ready workforce

Some of My Photos in the SessionThe lighting of the tradition oil lamp by the distinguished invitees

Mr. S. Thanigaseelan - Asst Director National Human Resource Development Council of Sri Lanka bringing

greetings at the inaugural session

The afternoon session being rolled out with Mrs. Brigitte Barakat Siriwardhana as Session Chair

The special invitees being appreciated by WUSC-SL Deputy Programs Director Mr. Deepthi Lamahewa

Thanks