APIIT commit 600 top quality IT grads annually to Private sector

In a landmark event at BMICH, The Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology( APIIT) committed to the leading IT/ BPO companies in Sri Lanka to provide 600 top quality IT graduates annually commencing 2023 to help spruce up the Sri Lankan economy that has moved to a challenging stage in the global stage.

Whilst the country grapples to find solutions to the burning issues in the country we remain positive and support the country’s quest to solve the foreign currency issues by ensuring the leading IT/ BPO companies drive the booming export of services business.

Sri Lanka is a saught after country for global organizations in US and Europe to take more ‘back end’ business from the global market said Dr. Rohantha Athukorala the Board Director of APIIT and Former Chairman of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

The companies that were present included the Indian giant HCL, global entity Virtusa, Blue chip John Keells IT, Swedish partnered Cambio and Former Amba company- Acquity. The Chairman APIIT Bandula Egodage commented ‘I am glad that APIIT is taking the high ground on this domain as Sri Lanka requires is support and not to critique. Each of us have to do our part to get the country back on track said Egodage who is also the Chairman of the Industrial Association of Sri Lanka and Vice President of the food giant Nestle Lanka Limited.

A fall out of the pandemic saw many companies developing strategies to combat a total shut out of companies and hence many top software solutions providers have moved parts of the business from India to Sri Lanka, which has resulted in the demand for Sri Lankan IT professionals being of high demand, said the communique.

The Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT) had to close registration for the year 2022 almost two weeks early as the demand for the IT Degrees exceeded the supply chain in the campus said Dr Athukorala. We want to now maintain the quality standards so that the end product we give to the private sector is not only academically strong but has a high degree of soft skills he said. The faculty at APIIT is a combination of top quality professionals from the private sector combined with a outstanding full time lecturers. Some of them are doctoral candidates for PhD programmes which makes APIIT unique.

The real equity of the brand is the weekly APIIT MBA Diary, which attracts the best CEO’s from Corporate Sri Lanka addressing the students whilst most of the IT companies do weekly training on soft skills and new updates from the global IT landscapes. The new ethos of running business is to focus on the ‘purpose’ and allow the business model to evolve over times said Athukorala. This is what we did at APIIT and now the value chain development drives the numbers said the communique.