Bridging the Skill Gap between Information Technology Academy and Industry: Case of Identification of IT Skills needed in IT Undergraduates

Abstract

From last few decades, the Information Technology has been influencing every aspect of a country, including: industrial, egovernance, social, educational and related others. Sri Lanka, with the intention of realizing knowledge hub, as one of its national visions, has no exception in front of the influence of the Information Technology. Accordingly, business process outsourcing sector has become a competitive industry to the national economy, supplying foreign exchange to the country, creating numerous employment opportunities, being an influencing force for country’s brain-drain. As a result, IT related academic and professional education sector became an intermediary industry to supply qualified people to the IT industry. However, meeting industry requirements and capabilities of graduates is found as not matched. It has discovered that, not only the knowledge that matters at the industry, graduates’ skills, attitudes, personalities play a considerable role for them to be succeeded in the industry. This research focuses on identifying skill requirements need to be excelled by IT undergraduates as successful IT professionals. Depending on the diverse nature of the research a mixed methodology including both qualitative and quantitative methods has been used