Attached
fC'T has fast become a crucial part of our global society and it is
dramatically transforming the world, facilitating innovation and
increasingly, connecting people and communities, and improving
•..
standards of living and opportunities across the globe enabling the
compression of time and space. This phase caused for a paradigm shift
in higher education in Sri Lanka in capturing leT in a large scale in
creating a technologically sound graduates who can effectively face
the challenges in this rapidly changing job market demands with
technological advancement. With those implementations, Sri Lankan
higher education institutions now rely mainly on computers and the
Internet for all aspects of their activities: administration, teaching,
learning and research. Further, conventional universities have made
the highest investment in leT infrastructure.
Moreover, higher educational institutions increasingly rely on K'T to
develop their students' skills as there is an immense growth in the use
of computers and the Internet. However, literature reveals that leT
adoption has not taken place among Sri Lankan university students to
achieve its best use. Employers expect graduates to be "K'T fluent"
and to continue trend to have more opportunities in the job market.
Therefore, it seems a less demand for Sri Lankan graduates in the job
market. These circumstances constitute why undergraduates do not use
l'CTs up to the desired level even under a regular improvement of leT
facilities in universities. This study aims to explore the. present
situation regarding leT facilitation in universities and the views of the university and job market personnel necessity regarding the ICT skills
for the job market, factors affecting the use of ICT and strategies to
promote using ICT among the students in universities.
The study followed the phenomenological approach of qualitative
paradigm through semi structured interviews and focus group
discussions. Altogether 24 semi structured interviews and focus group
discussions were conducted. Nine (9) interviews were conducted with
ICT coordinating lecturers who were in charge of ICT activities in the
Faculties of Arts, Science/Applied Science and Management, five (5)
interviews with ICT instructors and with one Librarian (1) from the
University of Colombo, the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, the
University of Ruhuna and the South Eastern University of Sri Lanka.
Three (3) focus group discussions were conducted with undergraduate
students and each group consisted of more than ten students from Arts,
Science/Applied Science and Management Faculties from selected
universities. Six (6) interviews were conducted with employers who
are engaged in recruitment of employees for jobs in leading fields in
Sri Lanka such as Aitken Spence Company, Ministry of Public
Administration, Hirdaramani Garments Industry, Ceylon Electricity
Board, People's Bank and Sampath Bank. The data collected were
analyzed using thematic content analytical techniques.
The majority of the participants had considerable working experience
and experience with ICT. Moreover, most of them had at least a
Bachelor's Degree level education. Results revealed that universities
had made efforts to produce ICT literate graduates who are able to
create a global demand for their products by enhancing their facilities,
resources and more ICT courses and students are also immersed in this
ICT environment in their faculties at respective universities. According
to the views of university community and the employers, the basic ICT
is an essential component for today's job market and advanced ICT
skills attract higher positions. It was found that Word, Excel, Power
Point, e-mail and Internet searching and its applications are the
essential basic ICT tools for fresh graduates. Moreover, it was revealed
that even though, most of the students have identified this necessity;
there are some who do not accept ICT as an essential element. On the other hand, job market employers seek ICT knowledgeable employees.
They further emphasize on the job market demand with ICT and
believe that a graduate can easily capture a highest position with
advanced ICT skills. Ease related to ICT, availability of more
infrastructure facilities, community to which students belong, prior
ICT experience, gender, subject streams, the university attached and
the lecturers' beliefs in students' use of ICT were the main factors
identified for using ICT in universities. An interesting feature of the
perceptions of the interviewees was that though all of them have
experienced individual differences in the performance on ICT of the
students/graduates, exact reasons could not be identified by all of them.
They believe that it might be due to the students' /graduates' attitudes
and the self-efficacy towards the work and ICT. The strategies
suggested by the respondents were to encourage undergraduates to use
ICT in universities, to enhance the ICT environment of universities
including infrastructure in the universities with less facilities, staff, and
courses, to promote ICT based education, and to form strategic plans
to encourage students to make the most use ofICT in universities. Most
commonly, the employers reported that even though the students were
knowledgeable in using ICT they are reluctant to use their knowledge
at their work places. Some private sector employers claimed that they
prefer if fresh graduates would be able to use e-mail and social media
such as Skype and Facebook. Finally, a novel view emerged through
the perceptions of employers. They believe that the students can build
up a self-demand at the job market by improving their individual use
of ICT during the undergraduate period. It is recommended that the
strategies brought up the interviewees could be implemented at
university level to improve the ICT education.
