Commenting on the motive to start this initiative, Professor Lalith Gamage, President and CEO of SLIIT said, “Over the years, we have observed that when students engage in an internship while studying, they perform better in the the industry after they graduate”.
“The industry is unable to provide training facilities for all our undergraduate students during their studies. Here at SLIIT, we have almost 1000 IT students per batch and hence the industry is not able to provide that many training opportunities.
Therefore the commencement of the in house internship programme, is to bridge the gap by providing these training opportunities. We will be making this industrial training component mandatory for at least a period of one month for everyone. Once the internship programme is proven to be successful, we want to collaborate in research with these units” elaborated Professor Gamage.
“Companies are unable to provide training opportunities due to the lack of infrastructure. Hence, SLIIT will take the lead in providing infrastructure facilities.
The facility will replicate the working environment and be managed by each organization as an extension of their own unit. Each organization will prepare students for the real world, by inculcating business, communication and soft skills.
Commenting on this new venture, Subash Chandra Bowse, Lead Consultant Sales/ Marketing and Management Services at HackImpact International mentioned, “I have done a little bit of research on European universities, which base their curriculum on employer centric programs. SLIIT has been a pioneer in many areas, and this is definitely yet another great venture by SLIIT
Thanking SLIIT and Professor Gamage for this initiative, Tharmarajah Suresh, Chairman and Group CEO ZILLIONe Group of Companies said, As an organization, we have been wanting to do something of this manner for a long time. This is a new module for us and new a business decision which we have made. We are definitely looking forward to this successful partnership.
Professor Lakshman Ratnayake, Chairman of SLIIT commented, “Industrial training is crucial to all students. The SLIIT students studying IT will have an edge, since they will gain work experience, industry knowledge, business skills and soft skills. Setting up these facilities will give our students an excellent opportunity to interact and know the flavor of the industry”.
Former Director at Virtusa, Prasath Nanayakkara, current Chairman and CEO of Auxenta mentioned, this type of venture is very attractive to us, as we are also experimenting and engaging in new initiatives. I have no doubt that this will be a great success. There maybe challenges along the way, but I think, this is a very good initiative to be a part of
With a long running history with SLIIT, Jayomi Lokuliyana, CO Founder and CEO of zMessenger notes, “Having started our company at the SLIIT Concept Nursery, we are one of the most successful start up organizations. We are glad to be a part of this collaborative initiative”.
At present, the SLIIT campus has the facility to accommodate about 10 companies. IFS, Brandix i3 and Orange have also agreed to join in this novel initiative. However, plans are being made to construct more buildings to accommodate more companies and build a community of a variety of industries within SLIIT.
