AMA targets more certified IT professionals

There used to be a time when an IT graduate just had to show his diploma to a prospective employer to land a job. Now, the industry requires a certified IT professional.

AMA, cognizant of the needs of the IT industry, recognized this and is now the top producer of IT-certified professionals in the Philip-pines.

For schoolyear 2003 alone, the AMA Education System has produced 325 Microsoft professionals, 142 Cisco Systems professionals, and 2,115 NCC-UK professionals.

"What these numbers mean is simple – that AMA students have a definite advantage in employment," said AMA Education System president Amable Aguiluz IX.

"By having industry certifications and international qualifications, our students have world-class skills and are ready to work in their chosen fields without further on-the-job training by their emplo-yers," he said.

Aguiluz IX recalled that two years ago, President Arroyo challenged AMA to produce a significant number of certified IT professionals.

"Things look promising. In a few more years, we probably could have that challenge fulfilled. Moreover, we would like to be the number one producer of certified IT profe-ssionals not only here but in the whole Asian region," he said.

Another advantage for AMA students with industry certifi-cations is that their names will be posted on the government’s National Man-power Information System (NMIS) of the Technical Education and Skills Deve-lopment Authority (TESDA), making them more accessible to employers looking for certified IT professionals.

AMA has produced some of the biggest names in the world of certified IT profes-sionals, including Allan Pami-talan, who was named as one of the Most Outs-tanding Academy Instruc-tors of Cisco Networking Academy in the Asia-Pacific Region.

The AMA Computer Univer-sity also has the distinction of being the first and only univer-sity to have two Microsoft certified trainers, namely, Reginald Hernandez and Anthony Jona-than Luistro.