STI addresses need for local e-commerce experts

As companies move to the Internet to conduct business, STI, the country's largest computer education institute, realizes a pressing need to address the lack of local e-commerce expertise.

Thus, the school, through a curriculum drawn up by US-based Filipino e-business expert David Paraiso, came up with a comprehensive program for students and professionals wishing to start or pursue careers in e-commerce systems, to be made available beginning this schoolyear.

Herman Gamboa, one of STI's founders, pointed out that unlike other offerings which dwell mainly on overviews, introductions and orientations of the new e-commerce technology, STI can provide broader knowledge about the system through three education roadmaps.

The Diploma in E-commerce Programming is a two-year diploma course open to high school graduates who wish to build careers in computers with specialization in e-commerce.

The course includes computer and programming fundamentals, detailed programming, language instruction on the e-commerce languages and basic and advance e-commerce systems development.

The certificate in E-commerce Systems Development is open to non-information technology (IT) college graduates without visual basic knowledge and experience.

It is a shorter program which hones the student in visual basic programming, the most popular e-commerce programming language, goes on to Internet programming and then to basic and advanced courses.

E-commerce Pro is for professionals and open to seasoned IT professionals such as programmers, designers and analysts who have no e-commerce knowledge.

Alvin Koh Relleve, STI senior manager for public affairs, said they expect about 2,000 students to enroll in the first year of the program although initially, only 40 of STI's 104 branches will carry it.

He said all graduates of the program are eligible for the school's guaranteed hire program (GHP), with the first 100 GHP-qualified graduates having immediate jobs waiting for them at STI's systems services company for work in off-shore and foreign-based projects.