Nepal's information technology sector is now booming as an industry exporting services worth $1 billion annually. However, the universities that produce the necessary manpower for this are still stagnating. While the use of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is increasing, experts have been pointing out that university classrooms are lagging behind in the technology race. To address the problem of companies not getting skilled manpower and manpower not getting jobs, NAS-IT and Nepal Open University are going to launch an 'Industry Integrated Degree' in collaboration with Swiss Contact and SDC.

Acting Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the Open University, Prof. According to Bhojraj Ghimire, in this program, students will get admission directly in IT companies after passing class 12 and they will work in the respective companies throughout the day and complete their university studies online after 6 pm.

For this, the curriculum is being developed with the participation of university professors and CEOs, CTOs and tech leaders of more than 40 IT companies in Nepal such as Ikebana, Amnil Technology, Fuse Machines, Leapfrog, Cedar Gate, Subisu, Prof. Ghimire informed. He said that the curriculum has been developed based on the National Qualification Framework approved by the Ministry of Education.

Preparations are being made to start this educational program from the upcoming September or February session. Gaurav Pandey, President of NAS-IT, informed that only 30 to 50 students will be accepted in the first batch of the four-year course. According to him, its fee will be very low compared to private colleges, i.e. only 5 to 8 lakh rupees. It is claimed that the salary received by the students from the company can cover their education expenses. 

As university education is theoretical and technology is changing in the industry, students who have completed engineering and are looking for work are facing a situation where they are unemployed due to lack of skills to work in the workplace, says Prof. Ghimire.  ‘Doctors, pilots, chartered accountants already know their job after getting their licenses, but IT engineers are facing problems due to lack of that skill,’ he said. 

This problem has added a financial burden to IT companies, says NAS-IT President Pandey.  ‘Even after companies recruit qualified employees, they have to undergo additional training for 6 to 9 months to put them to work, which costs about 900,000 rupees per person,’ he said. ‘10 to 15 thousand IT graduates are prepared annually in Nepal.   However, only a few of them fit into the companies.’