Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM) has long been a proponent of the continual development of Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM industry. With a view to realize their vision of establishing 1,000 start-ups, the facilitation of 200,000 more employment opportunities and accelerating the growth of the country’s IT/ BPM industry to support an export-based ecosystem worth USD 5 billion, SLASSCOM has keenly initiated a number of developmental and educational programmes through many of the initiatives spearheaded through their Forums and Centres of Excellence.

As the pandemic has accelerated the demand for new ways of learning, the establishment of the SLASSCOM Academy marks the beginning of another chapter of SLASSCOM to empower tech talent at all levels. Established to cater to a wide range of potential learners, with diverse educational needs and backgrounds: from school children, to undergraduates, to seasoned professionals of the industry and C-level executives who are keen to learn, unlearn, re-learn in order to upskill their knowledge.  SLASSCOM Academy strongly believes that it is critical to have a continuous learning mindset to grow as well as succeed in this hyper digital era.

The purpose of the SLASSCOM Academy is to bring in world-class learning experiences through partnerships with global and local organisations. As such, the Academy will cater to a wide range of skilling demands in the industry; be it up-skilling, cross-skilling, re-skilling, or task-skilling. The Academy will also be positioned as the central hub for all educational programmes conducted by and through SLASSCOM, including those programmes that are conducted in collaboration with its partners.

The Academy will also ensure that all the learning activities of SLASSCOM are aligned with the industry requirements based on feedback from member companies incorporating modern learning methods and standards. During the current pandemic, the Academy will focus on its virtual offering to its learners supporting remote learning from any device.  

Speaking on the launch of the Academy, SLASSCOM Chairperson Sandra De Zoysa stated, “We have been a part of many educational endeavours, looking to develop the wealth of knowledge regarding the IT/BPM industry and to develop Sri Lanka’s workforce in this field. The SLASSCOM Academy is an important step in the right direction and I believe that the timing is perfect since the importance of learning and knowledge sharing is currently at its highest and this trend will continue into the future. Therefore, we have taken steps to unify all of the courses and programmes available with us within the SLASSCOM Academy, so that students and industry professionals from the IT/BPM companies can benefit from a convenient and continuous learning experience and will also include nano-learning which is a trending learning modality”

Ashique M. Ali, the Vice Chairperson of SLASSCOM noted, “Our objective is to create a platform that provides career awareness, pathways, industry developed and curated courses, badges and certifications that will provide learning and development aimed at employability and career progression. The SLASSCOM Academy will be another major contributor, along with our other forums and projects, towards enabling Sri Lanka as a destination of choice for IT/BPM solutions and services.”

SLASSCOM’s focus on uplifting and empowering Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM industry to become a major player in global markets is only strengthened further with the launch of the SLASSCOM Academy. Awareness, understanding, application and innovation are the key tenets that the SLASSCOM Academy hopes to inspire in all their potential learners, be it students or industry professionals. With this initiative, SLASSCOM is geared to commence their journey of accelerating talent development to fuel the IT/BPM industry’s growth trajectory which is a critical success factor to achieving its “Vision 2025”.