CEBU CITY, June 4 (PNA) — The country’s Information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry is on track to meet its employment and revenue goal this year as it continues to strengthen its linkage with the academe in sustaining its talent pool, an industry leader said.
The IT-BPM expects to generate 1.23 million jobs and USD 21.8 billion in revenues this year.
In 2014, the industry grew significantly as it posted USD18.9 billion in revenues and reached over one million jobs, making them one of the top growth drivers of the Philippine economy.
Jomari Mercado, president and chief executive officer of Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), told participants of the Cebu ICT-BPM Conference that the industry was leveraging on the industry-academe linkage to sustain the talent pool, which remained to be a consistent issue among the IT-BPM firms.
IBPAP is pursuing the Service Management Program (SMP) in high-educational institutions and its internship will go full-blast this year, with 3,000 expected interns to join the IT-BPM firms by October.
Mercado said they were looking at strengthening the industry’s competitive edge in human resources to improve the quality and supply of talent of the fast-growing industry in the country.
SMP is a 21-unit specialized course designed to cultivate the skill sets needed by the students for an entry-level position of an IT-BPM company.
The program is being offered in state colleges and universities across the country.
With funding from the Commission on Higher Education, IBPAP expects to have trained close to 700 teachers and have about 20,000 students enrolled in the various subjects in 16 state universities and colleges across the country.
Some 42 colleges and universities located in the next wave cities have already sent 130 teachers for training while an additional 87 high education institutions have expressed interest to join the program.
At the start of this year, SMP’s internship already stood at 686. (PNA)