Basic skills, not enterprise Java, in Sri Lanka

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is helping to fund development of Sri Lanka's offshore outsourcing industry, says it made a mistake in announcing that it would provide training on enterprise Java as part of a basic IT work skills program, an agency spokeswoman said today.

The U.S. embassy in Sri Lanka is supporting economic development efforts to help rebuild the country’s Northern regions after nearly three decades of civil war.

The initial announcement said the program will bring training in offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) support, English and enterprise Java. The training will be offered to about 3,000 people. Private sector companies are part of this effort.

The inclusion of enterprise Java was curious because the USAID also said, in a subsequent follow-up blog post about this training, that the population in this area has “not been exposed to even basic IT technology.”

I asked USAID in Washington if it was really possible to teach enterprise Java to a group lacking basic skills, and they followed-up with the embassy. 

A USAID spokesman wrote this:

USAID's partner in the project, a Sri Lankan company, initially requested to teach Enterprise Java to students that may qualify. However, after conducting due diligence, the partner found that the training programs must focus on fundamental computer skills, as the majority of prospective trainees lacked even basic experience with computers. Thus, training provided under the USAID-funded project will focus exclusively on building basic IT competencies. The reference to "Enterprise Java" in the Embassy's press release was inadvertently included as a holdover from initial discussions.

The USAID’s decision to help fund some offshore BPO and IT training as part of effort here has been criticized. The U.S., say opponents, should not be funding foreign aid that helps build the offshore industry in another country. But there’s also a reason to put that argument aside in Sri Lanka’s case.

The Northern area of Sri Lanka has seen much killing, including massacres. The war has been particularly brutal, with as many as 100,000 people killed over the course of the war and this in a country with a total population of just over 21 million. The war was settled last year and now the government is trying to stabilize this area with some economic development assistance. 

The addition of some offshore workers in Sri Lanka isn’t going to change a thing as far as offshore outsourcing is concerned. The Philippines added 70,000 BPO jobs last year alone, and offshore outsourcing shops are being set up in every country with an electric outlet. In Sri Lanka, this training might make a difference in lives of people living in a desperate place.