Virtusa introduces salesforce module to local universities

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ GS: VRTU), a global provider of digital strategy, digital engineering, and IT services and solutions that help clients change and disrupt markets through innovation engineering, introduced a mandatory Salesforce Module at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) recently, with plans to incorporate the module into curricula across other local universities, addressing growing skill gaps in the new talent landscape.

Salesforce is the world’s top customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps improve business relationships with customers across the entire customer lifecycle, spanning marketing, sales and customer service interactions. CRM is also the fastest-growing enterprise application software category worldwide, making Salesforce knowledge a critical skill for IT professionals, and a requisite for hiring.

“At Virtusa, we identify skills that are essential for innovation and growth,” said Rahul Sahay, Head of HR for India & Sri Lanka at Virtusa. “Working closely with Sri Lanka’s higher educational institutions such as SLIIT as a long-standing industry partner has enabled us to synchronize skills development with skills demand, developing a talent pool that aligns with company competencies and evolving business strategies.”

The module creation was carried out under Virtusa’s Campus Reach initiative – an industry-academia partnership designed to support the next generation
of IT professionals to be workforce ready and contribute to the IT industry’s growth. Campus Reach carries out IT curriculum development, internships and mentoring among partner universities and institutes of higher education, directly improving skill capacities of potential employees. The Campus Reach initiative – part of Virtusa’s Corporate Social Responsibility strategy since 1998 – helps the company forecast and plan entry-level talent acquisition, bridge skill gaps and map future talent needs by shaping a more relevant curriculum, and creating a highly compatible global talent pool.

“Public and Private Universities are an extremely important cog of our talent pipeline, and we take pride and responsibility in building capacity at universities. This will enable us to create a future ready talent pool not only for Virtusa but also for country’s benefit,” Sampath Thrimavithana, Head of Talent Development & Campus Reach for Sri Lanka, Virtusa further elaborated.

As Sri Lanka’s single largest employer of fresh graduates and interns, Virtusa implemented the program at SLIIT, the country’s largest non-state institute of higher education, making the module mandatory for final year BSc students in Information Technology, specializing both in IT and Software Engineering. The course entails six-hours of virtual lectures and four-hours of laboratory practical sessions conducted by Virtusa’s Salesforce experts, followed by a three-week assignment. This follows in the heels of Virtusa’s Digital Discoverer program (DDP) launched in 2020 to build capacity and enhance career opportunities for university students across Sri Lanka.