IIT educates companies on benefits of InfoSchol scholarship program

The InfoSchol program, a brainchild of Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe Founder and Chairman of the Informatics Group, offers fully-sponsored British IT and Business degree scholarships. For several years it has been providing talented schoolchildren from across Sri Lanka the opportunity to obtain a 100% sponsored degree from the University of Westminster – UK while doing a full-time internship at leading organisations in the country.

The event was attended by Dr. Peter Bonfield, Vice Chancellor of Westminster University, UK, Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe, Founder and Chairman of the Informatics Group, Prof. Jayantha Wijeyaratne, Director of IIT, Naomi Krishnarajah, Dean of IIT, members of the IIT team and representatives from over 50 organisations.One of the key highlights of the event was the sharing of the positive personal experience of InfoSchol by two individuals, Thilan Warnakulage, Director Professional Services and TKM at Zone24x7 and Tamara Dunusinghe, mother of Dr. Shashakthi Abesinghe, Area Tech Lead of Google US. Thilan and Dr. Shashakthi are two of the hundreds of InfoSchol success stories spread across some of the leading multinational and blue chip companies in Sri Lanka and abroad.

Professor Jayantha Wijeyaratne, Director of IIT stated, “IIT InfoSchol has been a great privilege to students over the years. It has provided the necessary pathway for students to reach their goals in terms of international higher education, additionally excelling in their professional careers with the benefit of the internships that IIT presents.”

Vajira Karunaratne, Project Manager, InfoSchol, said “InfoSchol is a vitally advanced opportunity for Sri Lankan students pursuing an international career through higher studies. The programs offered are the BEng (Hons) Software Engineering, BSc (Hons) Computer Science, BSc (Hons) Business Information Systems and BA (Hons) Business Management degree programmes.”

Providing a parent’s perspective on how InfoSchol has positively impacted their lives, Tamara Dunusinghe, mother of Dr. Shashakthi Abesinghe, Area Tech Lead Google US stated, “After my son passed his A/L exam we heard about the InfoSchol scholarship programme at IIT and he was fortunate to get a chance to pursue his degree without any financial cost. Since IIT is very close to the best companies in Sri Lanka, they found my son a good job. I always tell teachers and parents to encourage children to take advantage of this amazing scholarship programme from IIT.”

Prior to commencing their degree, IIT will offer all InfoSchol students a 3-month induction programme. During their 5-year part-time degree programme,studentswill have the advantage of putting what they learn into practice in the real world, giving them a significant advantage over full-time students who do not have time to obtain industry exposure during their study period. InfoSchol students will also receive a substantial allowance from the company while gaining valuable experience that is in line with the degree they are pursuing.