Making IT education accessible
Making quality IT education accessible to the rural communities is Sarvodaya’s latest goal. “We operate in six different levels” General Secretary of Sri Lanka’s oldest NGO, Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne explained. Targeting spiritual, moral, cultural, social, economic and political development, the holistic upliftment Sarvodaya has been advocating includes an education wing, of which Fusion Education is a part.
In support of Fusion Education’s efforts to provide top notch training and hardware islandwide, Microsoft IT Academy and Cisco Networking Academy have come on board. Chairman of Sarvodaya Fusion, Madu Ratnayake felt the coming together of these global giants in the IT industry will guarantee a stamp of international standard on the IT certification offered by the Fusion Education Academy launched last Tuesday. Fitting in with their holistic outlook of a better standard of living, IT forms an integral part of employability he notes, “you can’t do anything without IT today.”
Bringing technology to those who would otherwise have little or no access to it, Fusion has “been around for about 20 years”, Dr. Ariyaratne says. Starting-out as ‘Telecentres’ in each district equipped with a basic computer, printer, scanner in the hopes of dispensing information, venturing out into educating came later on. In 2005 when Microsoft decided to actively work towards bridging the gap in IT skills, the Telecentres which had multiplied to 34 across the country started educating those in the districts. Currently not limited to districts alone, around 15,000 villages too are equipped with high quality hardware and expertise to train IT personnel under Fusion Education.
“It’s a social enterprise,” Dr. Ariyaratne clarified at the launch of Fusion Education Academy. “Despite the minor setbacks we’re still working on a business model” which works best for the objectives they have in mind. It’s unique, he remarked, that big names like Microsoft and Cisco have partnered with “an organisation like Sarvodaya, which does work at the grassroot level.”
Senior Education Programs Manager Microsoft Sri Lanka Yashinka Jayasinghe Alles shared that “Microsoft has up to date invested 4 Million USD” in Sri Lanka alone. Providing guidance for IT teachers in their education facilities throughout the globe, “since Fusion is an education oriented organisation, the programs come at a nominal cost” she disclosed. Ideal for the work done by Fusion because it allows for scaling resources, technical knowledge can now seep through to youngsters in rural localities. Knowing their way around Microsoft’s Office package is a high ranking requirement on any employer’s list, and teachers who have been through courses of training are now better equipped to do their jobs. “Even within the IT sector” Yashinka said, jobs rarely remain the same, for instance “with cloud computing taking-off,” the apt question would be if we are truly creating a workforce catering to the evolving market.
In 2014, “Sri Lanka produced 82,000 IT professionals” according to Programs Manager, Social Innovation Group Cisco, Kalhari Kaluarachchi. The number of IT jobs opening up in 2016 in the island is predicted to rocket up to 200,000 she shared. Representing a company which made a name for itself having created a router, “simply, the internet” which changed the face of modern day communication Kalhari feels “There is a demand” for trained IT professionals, and working together she feels the supply can be met.