Cebu IT pool needs certification to attract high-end investments

As Cebu positions itself to attract high-end IT-related investments, its talent niche needs international certification to step up its advantage in the global competition.

Department of Trade and Industry undersecretary Carissa Cruz said that the challenge that needs to be immediately addressed specifically in Cebu is to "professionally" build a pool of certified IT professionals especially the software developers.

While the manufacturing investment phenomenon in the Philippines has slowly died down due to China's advantage, Cruz said the Philippines has capability to intimidate China, in terms of talent niche.

However, if these potential talents cannot be quantified properly through internationally acknowledged certifying body, they would remain idle.

The entry of Philippine National IT Standards Foundation (PhilNits), formerly known as Jitse Philippines, in Cebu has paved the way for the huge pool of IT talents in Cebu to be certified.

For software development industry alone, there are over 30 small companies trying to serve the domestic base companies as well as the international outsourcing firms.

However, most of the Cebuano programmers or software developers do not have international certification to back up their potential profession.

Aside from PhilNits, the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for IT or Cedfit has created an IT certification center at the Cebu Asia Town IT Park to formally quantify the IT professionals here.

According to Cruz, the international certification for these talents are very important as Cebu is not just attracting the simple IT investments operations, but moving towards accommodating high-end IT industries that largely involved creativity.

The software developer, for instance, is one of the sought-after talents in the world, and Cebu should bank on this advantage.

She said Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and software development related companies are now looking for sites around the world including Philippines, and availability of talents is a vital requirement.

There are already several multinational companies installed their Research and Development (R&D) plants here in Cebu, like the Epson Precision, NEC Telecom Software Philippines Inc., Lexmark International Research and Development Center, among others.

DTI-7 regional director Asteria Caberte said the opening of PhilNits in Cebu, which offers training and certification for IT professionals, is expected to put forward the software development sector here, thereby inviting investments as well as attract outsourcing opportunities for Cebu home-base software development companies.