It was a significant day for 227 graduates who participated in the award ceremony held on Tuesday, 16 October at the New Town Hall, Colombo 7 on successful completion of the Graduate Training Programme (GTP-IT) conducted by the staff of the Institute of Computer Technology (ICT) and the Department of Computer Science (DCS) of the University of Colombo coordinated by the Computing Services Centre (CSC) of the Institute of Computer Technology.

Ambassador of United States of America to Sri Lanka Ashley Wills, was the chief guest at this event. Professor Savitri Goonesekere, Vice Chancellor, University of Colombo, Mr. Seiji Kaiho, Resident Representative of JICA, Mr. Steven Holgate, Director, USAID, Professor Jon Pearce, Fullbright Professor attached to the DCS, Professor V. K. Samaranayake, Director, ICT, senior management of the IT Industry, members of IT associations, and academics of the University of Colombo were among the distinguished invitees.

The GTP was launched with assistance from the software industry in 1998 to train non IT graduates in Computer Technology to cater to the skill shortage in the industry. Being a career oriented program bridging the industry needs, the GTP has a proven track record of producing over 300 trainees to date. Most of the participants have been able to find suitable employment opportunities in leading IT organizations, both local and overseas thereby building a better relationship between the university and the industry.

The GTP runs for a duration of 4 months (full time), with students being involved with a minimum of 728 study hours, including theory, practicals and industry based project work. The selections are based on an aptitude test and an interview with the involvement of the industry personnel who in turn will provide employment opportunities for these students. The program is conducted in the English medium and at present another batch of 50 graduates from several faculties in several universities are undergoing training.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Ambassador Wills stated that during his tenure of office in India, he witnessed the tremendous progress made by India in serving the international IT industry and added that Sri Lanka too could achieve the same success, with its intelligent capital and the human resource training centres in IT such as the ICT of the University of Colombo. He indicated the contributions made by the US Government in the form of developing the competitiveness of Sri Lanka where IT is one of the selected clusters. He recalled how Bill Gates, in the seventies had an idea which subsequently made him a technological giant and a very successful businessman. He saw no reason why a Sri Lankan present in the audience could not have a new idea that would lead to similar success.

The ICT was established by the Government of Sri Lanka in 1987 with project type technical cooperation from the Government of Japan to prepare students for careers in Information Technology as programmers and Systems Analysts. During the last 14 years of its existence, the ICT has not only enhanced its computing and human resources, but also has enriched its training programmes keeping with the rapidly changing state of the art technology.

ICT’s efforts were recognized by the JICA by awarding its prestigious award for "The Best Regional Programme" in 1999. The DCS has also obtained full accreditation of the British Computer Society (BCS) for its special degree in Computer Science. The ICT, together with the Department of Computer Science of the University of Colombo has become Sri Lanka’s leading human resource development center in Information Technology with resources that could be termed as one of the best in the region. The ICT has also been recognized as a "Regional Centre of Excellence" by several international agencies such as the UNDP and JICA.