65% of new graduates land in ICT jobs

CEBU, Philippines - Due to the active stance of the Cebu academe in providing ready-to-hire graduates of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) related courses, at least 65 percent of the total graduates land in ICT jobs.

Cebu Educational Development Foundation of Information Technology (Cedfit) official Gregg Gabison said that industry hiring rate for ICT-related graduates is within 29 percent to 33 percent in Cebu, while absorption of ICT related graduates is at 65 percent.

According to Gabison this is a good indication that ICT courses offered by different educational institutions in Cebu have at least matched the industry’s needs, although some companies still have to train the newly hired graduates.

The strong “faculty-emersion” advocacy of the academe sector in Cebu, has helped schools to effectively attune the ICT courses’ programs to the fast changing technology.

“Cebu has pioneered the faculty emersion advocacy, that is usually initiated by schools’ administration themselves, which means that schools have to invest on the faculty emersion program,” Gabison said.

With this teachers or faculty members are trained by ICT experts in different fields on how to develop effective course’ outlines for the students with high emphasis on hands-on training, than theory orientation.

What helped Cebu become a fast growing ICT destination in world, is the strong support and pro-active academe sector in catching up with the technology, and providing graduates that are ready for industry-in-demand skills.

“Most Cebu schools have very ideal ICT facilities. Most schools also offer a number of elective-base industry demand courses, or specialized skills in ICT,” said Gabison explaining that in ICT field it is important to specify one’s skills that this is broad field.

Specialized skills vary from animation, digital imaging, software programming, Computer-Aided Design (CAD), hardware trouble shooting, web design and development, among others.

He said Cebu has better faculty experts in ICT field, compared to other areas, reiterating that if industries here will continue to provide training for faculty and update on the technology, this edge will be sustained, and even improved.

In his recent visit to Cebu, Tholons chief executive officer (CEO) and founder Avinash Vashista said that Cebu’s quality manpower supply is one of the important advantages that Cebu should develop more seriously.

Vashista said if Cebu is trying to move up from number emerging Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) destination in the world, to a legitimate “emerged” destination, it has to seriously insist on its niche in manpower supply.         

While India and China’s local workforce maybe “ten to twenty times more” than in Cebu, the latter’s IT employers have proven themselves to be of world-class quality, Vashista stressed.

Cebu’s strength in having high quality workforce has been a significant factor in the province’s ranking last year by Global Services and Tholons’ as the number one emerging business process outsourcing (BPO) destinations among 50 key cities in the world. — Ehda M. Dagooc