Davao City schools to set up IT hub for students
July 04, 2014 at 11:04am
Lawyer Sam Matunog, president of the ICT Council of Davao City, said among the schools that are working on their respective IT Hubs are the University of Mindanao, University of the Immaculate Concepcion, the Ateneo de Davao University, University of the Philippines in Mindanao and the University of Southeastern Philippines.
"We have urged the schools to come up with this facility so that the students while completing their IT courses will also have a venue to host the applications that they innovate and be tested," he said during the Davao Business Forum organized by DermPath, San Miguel and SM City Davao on Tuesday.
He said this is also one step for them to explore the market and later become entrepreneurs.
Matunog said there are about a thousand graduates that the 46 schools produced but the figure could go up as there are about 90 IT schools in Region XI.
He admitted however that the bulk of the graduates are not prepared for the job of the industry saying "they still have to undergo bridging program and further training".
"We don't have problems with those graduates in Davao City schools but those coming from the neighboring provinces who come to the city to seek employment on IT related jobs as most of these graduates need further training. Most of the schools there do not have the appropriate teachers to handle subjects required for IT courses," he said.
He said there will be a dialogue among the academe members this month if only to address the pressing concern of the appropriate skills of workers needed in the IT industry.
Given this concern, Matunog said they had submitted their recommendation to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for an allocation in their program under the TWSP (Training for Work Scholarship Program).
In 2013, he said they submitted a proposal of P23 million worth of scholarship program for 2,000 slots in the region but no allocation was provided in line with the ITWSP (Information Technology for Work Scholarship Program)
"We have submitted the same allocation for 2014 and only for 480 slots because I was told that the funding was taken from Tesda's regular program. There was no appropriation for the special program," he said.
Matunog said last June, they again talked with TESDA and urged its officials to consider an additional allocation of 1,200 slots costing P15 million.
"We urged government to help the industry with the bridging program to fill in the gap. He said there is a need for 5,000 to 6,000 qualified workers to fill in the jobs.
On the other hand, Matunog said the IT industry here is doing good and more spaces are available for locators where the current unfilled spaces in Davao City is at 7,500 square meters. In 2015, once the Matina IT Park and the Felcris Commercial Building will be complete there would be about 30,000 square meters of available spaces here.
Source: balita.ph
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