Employability Model for Higher Education Institutes to Generate Work-Ready ICT Graduates in Sri Lanka

Abstract

According to the survey conducted by National IT-BPM Workforce in 2019, it was found that there is a gap between demand and supply of ICT graduates in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, there is a gap between the demand and supply of skills due to the fact that top skills demanded by employers and top skills offered by training organizations are not aligned at present. Primary data for the study were collected from the sample through expert interviews and questionnaires. The sample (N=400) consists of employers, academics, and alumni. Secondary data were collected from the curriculum of ICT programmes, Subject Benchmark Statement (SBS) on IT, Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework (SLQF) and ACM guidelines for Bachelor’s degrees in IT. The main objective of the study is to develop an employability model to generate work-ready ICT graduates in Sri Lanka while reducing the skill mismatch. According to the proposed employability model, components of the curriculum must align with the student-centred teaching and learning methods, programme learning outcomes and SLQF learning outcomes to develop graduate attributes which will be useful to generate workready graduates irrespective of the discipline. Most importantly, the Internal Quality Assurance Unit (IQAU) of the HEIs and Management of the HEIs have a great responsibility towards implementing the above-proposed model to generate workready ICT graduates in Sri Lanka. As a result, the gap between demand for and supply of ICT graduates and the skill mismatch can be reduced.