Peopling the ICT world

The information and communications technology (ICT) industry has grown by leaps and bounds over the years.

Largely comprising the ICT and ICT-enabled businesses, the outsourcing and offshoring industry alone piped in $4.8 billion to the Philippine economy based on data of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.

This is both owing to the country’s modern telecom infrastructure and abundance of world-class Filipino talent.

Indeed, one major factor in the growth of the sector is what industry insiders call “peopleware” — or the human component of the industry.

More than hardware and software, peopleware completes the equation, which spells the success of ICT and ICT-enabled enterprises in the country.

Peopleware and other issues on the importance of increasing the ICT skills of Filipinos will be one of the topics to be discussed in the forthcoming 12th ICT Professionals’ Congress on May 14-15 at the InterContinental Manila in Makati City. Behind the event is the Philippine Computer Society.

The Philippines has continuously attracted global investors in the industry attributed to a large extent to the competency of Filipino ICT professionals.

Jayjay Viray, general manager of JobsDB.com, an online human resources firm, said, “We have the skills needed by the ICT sector plus the good-natured attitude toward work.”

She said Filipinos know how to multi-task and do other jobs related to their work.

The country continues to produce the brainpower needed by the sector. About 10 percent of the 350,000 Filipino college graduates every year have degrees that are related to the ICT sector, according to the Philippine Strategic Roadmap for the ICT Sector.

However, a study made by the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (ITECC) revealed that a “lack of well-trained and competent trainers and educators in ICT and ICT-related subjects has contributed to the declining quality of education and of the country’s ICT and knowledge workers.”

Viray shared the same sentiment. “We have an oversupply of IT graduates, but we have an undersupply of quality IT graduates,” she said.

While Viray lamented that some IT graduates have no in-depth knowledge of basic principles of programming, for example, she is happy that some IT companies have partnered with IT schools to provide training and education.

One sector of the ICT industry that Viray hopes to see more Filipinos going into is software development. While there are many local software developers, their exposure to developing software is only bits and pieces of programs.

“They’re in a box,” Viray said. “How I wish we could develop something of bigger impact like Linux or Red Hat,” she added.

The sponsors of the 12th ICT Professionals’ Congress are JobsDB.com, Microsoft, Globe, Oracle, IBM and e-PLDT.

The PCS, founded in 1967, is the premiere organization of 700 ICT practitioners in the country.

It strives to continuously promote, protect and enhance the members of the ICT profession through its local and international activities.

For more details on the congress, log on to www.pcs-it.org, call 840-0985 to 86 or e-mail at [email protected].