Virtusa Sri Lanka hosted its first batch of Advanced Level students for an industry visitation at its Colombo office premises, kicking off yet another initiative to shape and nurture highly compatible and fast adapting mindsets among the next generation of local talent.

Virtusa, a global provider of digital strategy, digital engineering and IT services and solutions that help clients change and disrupt markets through innovation engineering, facilitated a full-day visit for 30 students and 2 accompanying senior teachers from Wesley College, Colombo – one of the longest-standing educational institutions in Sri Lanka.

“Holistic learning and development is essential for impressionable and ambitious senior secondary students, well before they choose their focus area in higher education,” Sampath Thrimavithana, Head of Human Resources of Virtusa Sri Lanka stated. “This next generation of future talent in Sri Lanka will be a key driver of our country’s growth engine, and helping them discover and unlock their potential through practical exposure is a responsibility of industry-leaders such as Virtusa. We are thrilled with the success of our first school-level industrial visitation, and look forward to hosting more students from schools and universities across Sri Lanka.”

Industry visitations for senior secondary students provide indispensable insight to real-world working environments, offering a more practical perspective of theoretical concepts. They also provide school students with a head start to plan their career paths, with opportunities to interact and network with industry experts and peers, creating strong impressions and aspirations for their future. As the single largest employer of fresh graduates in the country with an intake of over 500 interns annually, industry visits hosted by Virtusa give students an immersive experience of the pace of evolution within the IT industry, and the wide spectrum of career opportunities it presents as a result of this rapid progress.

The industry visitation hosted by Virtusa consisted of an overview to the company as well as the local and global IT industry, market trends and future industry predictions. The students were introduced to various domains, verticals and extended career opportunities within the IT industry to address one of the key misconceptions about IT job opportunities being limited to computer programming. This was followed by a tour around the office premises, where the students gained first-hand exposure to Virtusa’s acclaimed work culture that has remained key in attracting and retaining top Sri Lankan talent. The visitation was completed with a more practical team engagement session for the students to understand and experience team dynamics in real-world work environments.